Ten Years in the United States: being an Englishman's views of men and things in the North and South

Front matter

BEING AN ENGLISHMAN'S VIEWS OF MEN AND THINGS IN THE NORTH AND SOUTH. BY D. W. MITCHELL, FORMERLY RESIDENT IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. "Why should not the Truth be spoken? LONDON: SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, COENHILL M.DCCC.LXII. [The right of Translation is reserved? PEEEACE. The sudden and unexpected Dissolution of the great American Union, accompanied as it is with a fierce war of devastation between men who but yesterday were fellow citizens, and exulting, as it seemed, beyond all other people, in the Government of their own creation — excites more and more the attention and interest of the British people ; and will probably continue to do so, until they satisfac torily understand the immediate causes of these startling convulsions in a great community, apparently so healthy and vigorous. Never was there a social and political derangement in which almost the whole turn of events so entirely differed from the common expectation.

And, perhaps, the most unexpected circumstances are yet to happen before the close of this great Transatlantic drama, of which the first act is now just over. Two years ago, had the question been debated as to what important national Government would next undergo a great revolution, very few would have named the United States, then so flourishing and powerful, so favoured by a Preface. VI nature, and their people so satisfied with their condition and their institutions — as the world believed. It is mainly with the hope of explaining the most active and powerful causes of this great revolution, that I offer this volume to the world. Those causes, little known as they were in this country, have long been seen and pointed out by the few who, amidst the universal whirl of life in the United States, took time to reflect upon the tendency of things ; but who uttered their warnings in vain, to ears filled with the roar of the passing hour.

A residence of some ten years in the United States, commencing at that memorable epoch of European con vulsions, 1848, has afforded me a better opportunity of observing and understanding the people of whom I write — their habits and feelings, their private and public life — than is often enjoyed by those who endeavour to make people better acquainted with their distant brethren. While observing human nature and studying American politics, I had to work for my living ; and I became so far Americanized that I ceased to be regarded or treated as a stranger or foreigner. For some years, indeed, I looked upon the now famous city of Richmond as my home, and only left it with a view to escape from the national scourge, dyspepsia. The present volume is based upon memoranda and materials accumulated from time to time in various places, for the purpose of illustrating the social and political peculiarities of the United States people.

Chapter I

Discontent — Condition of England in 1848 — The New World much like the Old — The Star-spangled Banner — Virginia a Young England — Scene of the Merrimac's Exploits, and of M'Clellan's Strategic Tactics — Lightning Bugs — Stuck on a Bar ....

Chapter V. Richmond, Virginia

Natives, Jews, Germans, Foreigners — Negro Progression — Indian Retrogression — Return of the Red Man ? — Laying-off Cities — Gossip — Slave Auction — Sovereign or Courtier ? — The Capitol of Virginia— The Legislature — Men not in their right Places — Appointing Legislatures by Lot — Disappointment — The next great Movement ........

Chapter VI

Composition of the Population as to National Origin — Societies — Institutions — " Americans " — Publications — Idea of Washington — Convicts — Effects of Climate on White Men — Victuals — Cookery — Lager Beer — Hint to Teetotalers — How to Travel — Social Amusements — " Jogging Along " — Complexion — The Church

Chapter VII

City of Washington, D. C, Seat of the Federal Government — General Taylor — His Eulogy — The United States Presidents — North and South compared .......

Chapter VIII

City of Washington — Mr. Seward's Great Speech on the Slavery Question (March 11, 1850) — Present Events Foreshadowed — Seward's Career — Bennett on Seward — Disunion debated in Senate — Negroes termed Accidents and Disturbances by Seward — Calculations a la Bobadil — On Californian Secession — An uncompromising Statesman — The United States Arch Fiend

Chapter IX

The House of Representatives at Washington — Lobby Members — Wholesale Corruption of the Legislature of the young Western State of Wisconsin — Angry Correspondence between General Scott and Jeff. Davis .......

Chapter X

New York City — The City Government — Sanitary Condition — The Condition of the Lish — The Poor — Tenement Houses — Needlewomen — The Potter's Field .... Contents. XI PAGE 177 192 208 224 254

Chapter XI

United States Anglophobia — Inquiry as to whence it arises — Another Instance of the Majority being ruled by a Minority in the American Democracy . . ...... CHAPTER XH. North and South — The national Foible — Distinctions between the Slaveholder and Yankee — Their Types — Public Life — Publicity — Display — Modes of Life — "Grass Widow's" Revenge — Failure of Democracy — " Mason and Dixon's Line " . CHAPTER XHT. Some amusing Statistics — Inferiority of the South demonstrated by Abolitionist Figures — As to Christian Benevolence — Area and Population — Value of Churches — The Press — Education — Libraries — Colleges — Southern Ignorance — Agriculture — Cotton — Manufiicturcs — Commerce — Explanations — Reflection — Miseducation — New England Education — Quotation from Bishop Potter

CHAPTER XIV.

" STRIKE, BUT HEAR ME." The Dangers of Philanthropy — The Question : Negro Slavery in the Confederate States — Under whom is the Negro likely to fare best : Northerners or Southerners ?— The Tree to be judged by its Fruits — Condition of the African in Africa and elsewhere — In the Southern States — Negro Progress — Effect of Slavery on the Slave-owner — Effects of Demagogue Rule on Free-men — Abstract Injustice — Men not Equal — Origin of Slavery — Good to one Man may be Evil to another — Negro's cerebral Inferiority — Fate of the Negro should the North triumph — To distinguish and classify Men the great Problem ........

CHAPTER XV.

Early Settlers of the now Northern States — The Mayflower and the Puritans — Colonization of Virginia and the now Confederated States — Handsome young Englishwomen sold in Virginia — Cavalier Emigrants— Rebels sold — Huguenot Immigrants — The Puritans and Roger Williams — The Yankee Character — Respect shown to Women — On the Stump — Know-nothings — Popular Sovereignty insulted— Insanity on the subject of Natural Grandeur Contents. XII 322

CHAPTER XVI. PACE

The Catholic Irish-Americans — The " Democrats " — First Suggestion of the Atlantic Cable — Irish Press — On England — On United States Politics — Irish Influence ...... 275

CHAPTER XVII.

United States Abolitionists — Clashing Theory and Practice — Abolitionist Meeting — Desire for Disunion — Equality — Woman's Rights — "Free Love" — Daniel Webster — Wendell Phillips — Majority ruled by a small Minority . . . . . 29 1 CHAPTER XVHI. State Constitutions — New York Constitution — Theory of Equal Eights abandoned — Extent of State Sovereignty — Coloured People — Extent of Powers of the United States Constitution — A Treaty between Sovereign States for Foreign and Inter-State Purposes —Fugitive Slave Provision in the Constitution of United States — Repudiated by Pennsylvania, &c. — Constitutionality of the South — Written Constitution no Safeguard against actual Powers — Constitution of Mexico for Example ..... 305

CHAPTER XIX.

Unsettled State of Society — Want of Home Influences — The West — Emigrating — Malaria — The Land — Land Speculations — Effects of Success and Prosperity — Trading in the Progress of the Country — The Railway System — Western Land Mania — The Panic — John Bull's Stamina acknowledged — Charitableness and Generosity of the People ........

Chapter I

Discontent — Condition of England in 1848 — The New World much like the Old — The Star-spangled Banner — Virginia a Young England — Scene of the Merrimac's Exploits, and of M'Clellan's Strategic Tactics — Lightning Bugs — Stuck on a Bar. I know not what it was possessed me all at once, when I was a much younger man, to start off on a visit to the then little known great trans- Atlantic republic. Of course, I had plenty of reasons to give when asked, since it is very easy to give reasons for any conduct not palpably insane ; but I suspect I hardly ventured to confess the real motive even to myself. I was too comfortable per haps ; things went on too easily and prosperously, and life was becoming monotonously pleasant. At any rate, I wanted a change, and to see the world. England seemed to me to have seen her best days, to be overdone, over crowded.

What sort of a career had she to offer to her sons? especially to that large and dangerous class, com posed of those at the same time poor, proud, ambitious, and energetic, unable to command, and ashamed to beg, the assistance of any " influence ?" I speak of the gloomy period which reached its worst in 1847 and in the memorable 1848, about the time when Mr. Cobden declared that the age of warfare had ceased. In the subsequent interval England has altered for the better, to an extent which is very surprising to one who left the country before the revolutionary year and returned after the Indian mutiny and the Crimean war. I was one day sitting at my small desk, in a little dark cage of a room, with no other business than to look out on the crowded thoroughfare. I had just finished The Last of the Mohicans.

The mildness, the freshness, the freedom of the New World, its abundance of land and scope for enterprise and adventure, all delighted and tempted me. I gazed almost with disgust and disdain on the anxious hurrying streams of people. " Yes," I said to myself, descending from my three-legged stool, and but toning my coat, " I will get out of this artificial state of things; I will go and dwell with Nature herself, her works and her children " — with much more in the like strain, that now appears sufficiently ridiculous to myself. I did not know how much I loved poor old England until, on the deck of the parting ship, I saw her white cliffs and green fields flitting away, and gradually disappearing in the darkness and distance ; a light only remaining to tell of her whereabouts. That, too, was soon below the horizon ; and I walked up and down the deck, or sat wherever I could find a seat, or leaned over the bulwarks.

I looked at the billows and the stars, but I thought little of them ; the grandeur, and beauty, and Point-no-Point — First Disappointment. 3 novelty of the scene and situation had no charms for me. Familiar faces and voices, and the few last words so sweet, so painful, filled my mind. I pictured to myself one fireside now more sad and silent than the dark deck around me. But fatigue, and sleep, and pleasant dreams came at last. How we crossed the once vast and awful Atlantic I need not relate ; that has now become a small, every-day matter. I was as many weeks crossing the Atlantic as an ocean steamer now takes days. Our destination was Richmond, at the head of the tide water, on the James River ; for I wished to avoid the beaten track of travellers. The first American land we saw was Point-no-Point ; and all safe and well, every sail set, we gaily entered Chesapeake Bay.

How eagerly we looked around us to catch the first glimpse of anything that might indicate the character of " the New World ! " We were rather disappointed at its looking so much like the Old. Gradually we saw the low shores; at a little distance we passed a fort — Fort Monroe; a town — Norfolk. Aided by the glass, we made out, too, that the houses had quite an English look; and, in answer to the inquiries of the children, the captain informed us that the people, in cluding even the blackamoor slave, spoke English ; that these poor slaves did not wear chains or iron collars ; and that, though they were sometimes whipped, it was quite out of public sight. We passed close to a rough round fortification, rising perpendicularly from amidst the waves. Over it floated the StEtr-spangled Banner, at which we looked with 1—2 much interest ; and after considerable discussion, with the exception of our captain, we unanimously agreed that it was not so handsome as our own — The flag that's braved a thousand years, The battle and the breeze.

" Well," said our captain, " perhaps — (they call it the Rip-Raps, my son," interrupting himself to answer one of the juveniles) — " perhaps, ours is not so showy a piece of bunting as yours ; and to be sure, it ain't quite so antiquated. But you must give it time. It's expanding, I guess. We've improved and extended a little since the Battle of Bunker's Hill. Why, you might look over the map of America, and not notice this magnificent bay we're in ; and yet you could put England in this very sheet of water, and still have sailing room. It'll be a great country, this will, when it's all fenced in, I tell you." " Very true ; but it seems to me you think too much of your mere numbers of people and extent of land. I look at quality rather than quantity. To increase and multiply rapidly is, perhaps, all very well ; still, if all Africa were under one flag, with its present population, it would be, mentally (and 'the mind's the stature of the man'), a smaller nation than Switzerland — less important than the single city of Rome or Paris, or even Florence."

" Take in those stunsails," answered the captain, walkino forward among the men. It was quite a pleasure, yet somehow disappointing, to find that the State, with the pretty name of Virginia, seemed, so far as the map showed, quite an English sort of a country. It was named after our Virgin Queen, and many of the counties after those of the old country, — Old Virginny — The James River. 5 Surrey, Sussex, Middlesex, York, Lancaster, New Kent, and so on ; towns and rivers being christened in honour of once-distinguished English personages. Richmond, our destination, is said to have been so called from the resem blance of its site and scenery to those of the Richmond on Thames. As the river we were ascending became narrower, and its banks more pleasing and interesting, we agreed that it should have been " The Thames " instead of " The James."

The Old Dominion, as Virginia is often called, is full of English reminiscences ; and considering the origin, speech, feelings, habits, and mode of life among the people — excluding, perhaps, the negroes and the newer settlements — it might be called " Young England " with more justice than any other part of the world. Soon we were slowly sailing between high banks covered with dark, luxuriant, green old woods, or presenting large open spaces verdant with that noble crop, the Indian corn, or maize. Here and there we perceived large mansions, generally of red brick, which, in some cases, had been brought from England, and surrounded with abundance of trees for shade. The river wound about as if in no hurry to reach its destination : its waters became clear and of a deep green. As the sun sank behind the masses of forest around us, the calm and quiet, the rich verdure of the banks, the refreshing, yet balmy coolness of the air, made it truly delightful to lounge on the deck and give oneself up to pleasant impressions and anticipations.

I had never before so well understood the Italian's " dolce far niente," and felt that we were in a more southern and sunny clime than that of England. As it grew darker, we were surprised at seeing what seemed large sparks moving about gracefully, curving, as it were, among the dark foliage, each gliding through the air for two or three yards, then going out for a moment, then re-appearing. Of course, we soon con cluded they were fire-flies ; * but we were rather disgusted to learn that in the American vernacular the meteor-like insects were termed "lightning-bugs." We afterwards found that almost any insect is a " bug," — June-bugs, candle-bugs, besides other better known species. The rich and influential, the aristocracy, are " big bugs." The use of the word " bug " to signify any sort of insect, is, I believe, originally English — like most Americanisms.

In some of our eastern counties the children say — Fly away, lady bug, fly away home, Your house is on fire, your children at home ; which the young cockney alters to — Fly away, lady bird, &c, addressing the pretty little red-bodied, black-spotted, cole opter, which keeps down the numbers of the devouring aphides. Slowly we ascended the gracefully winding river, watching the last gleams of sunset and the rising moon, when suddenly a sullen grating sound and a tremor and shock caused us all to stare at each other and then at * Borne In circles quaint, and ever-changing dance, Like winged stars, the fire-flies flash and dance, Pale in the open moonshine ; but each one Under the dark trees seems a little son, A meteor tamed, a fixed star gone astray From silvery regions of the milky way. — Shelley.

Stuck on a Bar. 7 the captain, who was giving orders and swearing, irritated, we were glad to see, rather than alarmed. " D and the river to " (our captain swore shockingly sometimes), he growled, between his teeth ; continuing as I went nearer to him — " Any white men on the face of the earth, except these cursed lazy Virginians, would keep this stream fit for the largest liner to go up and down in safety. Here we are, stuck on a bar, and got to stick on it half the night ! Tide going down. Wind getting up, too, them. I wish would take all the cuss't niggers they're so fond of to heaven or to Africa. By , I'd buy a farm here myself, then. I guess I'd show some of the F. F. V.s how to farm, too, by ! " " There's no danger, is there, captain ? " said Mrs. , approaching on one side, anxiously, her three little ones round her, eyes and mouths wide open.

A true American the captain was — cool and polite in a moment, as he turned and assured her there was none. Then, in compliance with the wishes of our steward, who had procured some luxuries from the shore, we adjourned to supper ; and chickens, eggs, bacon, tomatoes, green corn, asparagus, enabled us to make a pleasant meal. * * Since the year when this was written, what unforeseen and, then, incredible scenes and events have taken place on the banks of the James ! In no country, so far as any human foresight or speculation extended, were such things less likely to happen than in the region now strewed with human carcases. About that very time, the wealth and respectability of London were in a state of alarm which it is now hard to realize ; while America looked on Em-ope, labouring in the pangs of universal revolution, with mingled condolence and encouragement, pity, and self-satisfaction, in the belief that the Old World was merely struggling to imitate the institutions of the New. Let no nation, then, believe itself beyond the reach of the greatest of misfortunes.

Chapter II

First Sight of a Slave — An Exploring Expedition in the since famous Chickahominy Region — Meet with an Uncle — Reach a Farm-house near the James — Virginia Farmer's Family, Dwelling, Habits — The Negro Question. I WAS sitting alone on deck, enjoying the delicious night, whose quiet, however, was to my ear somewhat disturbed by the croakings of numerous frogs. My eye followed a moving light on the river, which proved to be in a boat containing two men. As they passed alongside, I felt inclined to enter into friendly communication with them ; so I asked what they were doing there, and where they were going ? English travellers used to be much annoyed by the Yankee practice of asking questions of strangers ; but it is, in fact, a practice much to the stranger's advantage, since it allows him to question in return, and to learn much which he could arrive at in no other way.

" We've been fishing, massa, and we'se going home now, down the river a bit to Mr. Amery's, close by Nockatock," was the reply. " Got a few fish to spare, boys ? " asked our mate, who now stood by my side. " Well, massa, we ain't had much luck ; but I s'pose as you're come a mighty long ways, you won't be very 'ticklar ; and I reckon we must " First Slave Negro Acquaintance. 9 The old negro kept saying something as he stooped down among his fish ; "and it occurred to me that I might be able at once to introduce myself to the natives of the region. So when the fish business had been transacted, I inquired of the negro who seemed to be in command whether there was an inn at Nockatock ? " I don't 'zackly understand the gen'leman," said the negro, turning to the mate ; " I reckon he don't 'long to these parts."

"Is there a public-house or a tavern at Nockatock — any house where a traveller could get a bed for the night, and a something to eat ? " The grey-headed old fellow looked inquiringly and shyly at us as he replied, " Why, mass'r, I speck ther's mighty few houses hereabouts where a gen'lman travelling couldn't get that much." " Yes, yes ; but is there a public-house at Nockatock, old man ? " asked the mate. " Well, it's mighty late now, mass'r." " How far is it from here ? " I inquired. " How long will it take you to getthere ? " * It was with much trouble that, assisted by the mate, I at last found I could get to Nockatock in about an hour. I had soon bid good night to him and the one or two men in sight, and was floating down the James in the fishing boat with my two rude companions. * In what few pages the author speaks of himself and of private persons in this volume, names, dates, and localities are changed, so as to avoid the possibility of annoying any one by blinging their domestic habits, circumstances, and affairs before the public.

This plan, however, does not affect debateable facts ; for all of which authority is given, since I wish to make this little book indisputable testimony on the subjects concerning which the United States have been pointed to as the living illustration. For various reasons I thought it best to say little, and we soon reached our rough landing-place, where it was arranged that the younger and more taciturn negro should carry my small valise and walk with me to my destination. He was not well acquainted with the road, but he was told he couldn't miss it with a little care. At first we walked along the carriage-way; the dark forest on both sides, with a few lightning-bugs gliding about ; a number of frogs, of all voices, from shrillest treble, and higher, down to a deep bass, interfering very much with my reflections and with the night's serenity.

I congratulated myself on having left the ship, and thus plunged in medias res, instead of waiting and disembark ing at the ordinary landing-place. I was now, I presumed, in a portion of the virgin forest of the New World. Not wishing to run the risk of appearing ridiculous, I refrained from asking my guide whether wolves or bears, or other wild beasts, still infested the country, and whether the Red Indian had entirely disappeared. In fact, although Virginia has been so long settled, both bears and wolves are common in some ranges of the not very lofty mountains which run through the centre of the State, dividing it into Eastern and Western Virginia ; and, at no great distance from where I was, there still remained a village of inoffensive red men. All at once my guide broke silence by exclaiming, " Ah ! all right, massa ! here it is.

I gan to tink I lost de track — dat is fact." " What is it ? " I inquired. "Why, I tort we had somehow passed dis ole hoss's white head," said he, pointing to a white object on the M^Clellan's Woods. 11 ground at our feet, which I guessed to be the bleached skull of a horse. " Now, we've only got to take dis left fork, and then we come to a fence and an ole field " He continued rehearsing to himself the route, which comprised so many points that I anxiously hoped he might make no mistake; the more so as we heard the roll of distant thunder, and a stillness and sultriness all round — not a leaf moving — seemed to give warning of an approaching storm. " The quicker we gets out of dis de better, massa, I reckon," said my guide, as he lumbered along a few feet ahead of me. " It looks mighty like we're going to have all sorts of a storm 'fore long."

I now began to wish I had been contented to sleep on board, and had checked till daylight my curiosity to explore the still to me New World. At night the sea is solemn and awe-inspiring ; so is the desert ; but in the midst of an unknown forest, danger seems more imminent and there is something more awful than in either. Now and then my guide would mutter to himself. The distant thunder murmured. I with my London eyes couldn't avoid roots, small ponds, and other obstacles so easily as he did ; and we had to cross two or three stony gullies, with which the heavy rains cut up the country, and the wood seemed to get thicker and darker. This was the nature, I afterwards found, of a great portion of Virginia ; three-fifths of it being still in its original forest state. Such appears to have been the natural condition of the whole of the eastern side of the continent ; one vast forest covering the uneven surface, from the Gulf of Mexico northward, till the climate stunts and thins vegetation.

" 'Scuse me, massa," said my guide, interrupting my meditations, and touching his hat, " I reckon we'd best be gitting along ; if it rains like it lightens, I don't know how we'll git across the branch." "The what?" " The branch, sir ; and I 'spected to got dar 'fore now, but the lightning sort o' bothered one, I 'spose." " What branch do you mean ?" said I, wanting to arrive at a better understanding. "We calls it de branch, massa — dat's de only name I ever heerd. It runs into de river away down yonder." I found that he meant a stream of water ; any fordable running stream being so called in this section. " Well, sit down a minute or two, and try this," I said, handing my guide a small drink of brandy from a little flask with which the provident mate had supplied me. He drank it off, every drop, with evident satisfaction, and seemed all the better for it, physically and mentally.

The negro evidently began to suffer considerably, breathing heavily now and then. Remembering the in structions of my friend the mate as to how to speak and behave towards the " nigger," I said to him, " Boy, why don't you sit down and rest yourself." " Goramity, massa, tank you ; I just wants to git out of dis — dat's all I wants. It beats my time." He was evidently in a state of suppressed alarm. " Don't you often have such lightning as this ? " I asked. " Never in my born days, massa ! — I swar, never ! It puts me in mind of de words of de preacher at de revival not long ago. It is mighty awful. I'm right glad dar An Old Uncle. 13 ain't no more thunder, or it would be like judgment day." I had sat down on a log, and told him he had better do the same for a few minutes. " Well, massa, I'se mighty tired, but there's snakes in these woods, and I don't 'zackly like sitting down promiscus."

" Snakes ! " I cried, jumping up as if electrified, and causing Washington to strike an attitude of alarm. I at once began to inquire into the ways, and habits, and numbers of the species of the hated and accursed genus which infested the country ; and then I ventured to sit down again on a protuberance from the foot of a tree, first spreading my white handkerchief to sit upon. I, for my part, have not that horror and disgust at sight of ophidian reptiles which seems natural to most people, especially to negroes ; for when I was a boy, one of my fancies was to keep a tame common English snake. After walking a little farther my pioneer stood still, lost ; then suddenly exclaimed, " Dar's a dorg," meaning that he heard a dog bark. We pushed on, and came to a farm road, then to a wooden gate, and soon saw a light.