White, Red, Black. Sketches of Society in the United States, during the visit of their Guest

Preface

. Many books on America have been published in England ; — earnest and satirical accounts, serious and flippant narratives, caricatures and sketches, bird's-eye views, and finished pictures. Miss Martineau, Silk Buckingham, George Combe, Alexander Mackay, Sir Charles Lyell, have treated in their valuable works the most different phases of American life. Why then another book, on a subject so often and, in some quarters, so ably treated ? The question is easily answered. America is growing rapidly, and changes its aspect unceasingly ; a short time gives to the States a different appearance, and a picture, true to-day, after a couple of years no longer bears resemblance. And then, the Americans are so closely related to the English, as they speak the same language, and live under the same common law, that some of the tourists a § VI

PREFACE.

. have been induced to direct their attention less to the working of the different institutions, than to insignificant discrepancies on the surface of society. A foreigner, strange to both countries, without previous predilection for, or prejudice against, either of them, can, perhaps, be more impartial in his views of the United States, than the son of the mother-country, attached to her manners and customs. These reasons have induced me to carry an owl to Athens, by pub lishing these volumes. The work is, perhaps, not so superfluous as it seems at first sight, as many incorrect notions on American institutions are still prevailing on this side the ocean. A year has hardly elapsed since an English Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs provoked ridicule in the United States, by mentioning in Parliament " the deli cacy of relations between the central and pro vincial (sic) governments of the United States." In fact, he showed himself unaware that full constitutional remedies are already provided in the States, for the inconveniences of which he

PREFACE.

. VII complained. In the same way the English public has been accustomed to underrate the development of America, and the character of her citizens, except in regard to commerce. The peculiar opportunities which we enjoyed in travelling over the United States with Kossuth, the guest of the nation, afforded us more facility of becoming familiar with the policy and society of the New World, than is granted to most travellers. We became personally acquainted with nearly all the leading men of the States, and the frankness and communicativeness, natural to the American character, allowed us to get a deeper insight, through our friends, into the workings of republican self-government, as well as of party politics. Mrs. Pulszky kept a regular Diary, the greater part of which has been incorporated with this publication.

We did not dwell upon many particulars of American manners and habits, which often strike English travellers. For example, we were not shocked that, at breakfast, the Americans pour the contents of their eggs

PREFACE.

. into glasses ; we did not enquire whether the orthodoxy of eating lamb with mint-sauce, roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, and rhubarb pie with Devonshire cream, has survived the decla ration of American Independence ; we do not know, whether " the American attempts at steaks and chops " are ridiculous or not, not being accustomed to attach peculiar importance to the philosophy of the kitchen and the dining-room, and convinced, by experience, that no nation in the world possesses the monopoly of good cookery. Belonging to an eminently smoking people, the extensive use of the cigar did not hurt my feelings, though I thought that chewing and its consequences were no improvements on the us*e of the fragrant leaf. In regard to graver matters, I do not evade any question, though slavery, for instance, is a point on which it is difficult to write, without giving offence on one or the other side of the Atlantic. The English are so proud because they have ceased to be slaveholders nearly a whole score of years, that they overlook the

PREFACE.

. IX difficulties with which this question is con nected in the Union ; whilst the Americans of the South are so touchy in regard to the sovereignty of then- States, that they call even the modest publications of a tourist, a " foreign intervention" in their domestic concerns, and, by the very fact, excite the resentment of those who feel no sympathy with the "peculiar insti tution." I give my opinion openly, without seeking to ingratiate myself with any party. In the same way I attempted to describe the large contending political parties and their subdivisions, and the different aspect of society in the four great portions of the Union, faithfully and conscientiously. We met friends amongst all the sections of the United States ; I was con vinced of the earnestness and sincerity of all the parties, and I give their principles without attempting to decide which of them is more conducive to the weal of the country. As far as I venture to form an opinion, it is, that the extinction of either of these great parties would be a national calamity. X

PREFACE.

. Though I accompanied Kossuth on his journey through the different States of the Union, he is in no way, and in no point, responsible for any of the views which I take. His views on America have been expressed in his speeches. The Three Letters of a New England Lady to Mrs. Pulszky, on American Character and Educa tion, given in the Appendix of the third volume, are such valuable sketches of American life, that, with the permission of the writer, I have adorned these volumes with them. FRANCIS PULSZKY. Bayswateh, February, 1853. CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

Chapter I. Passage To Ameeica

Page 1. Departure from England ... j 2. DiscoTery of America before Columbus . . 5 3. The Americans in Europe . . 12 4. Escape of Madame Kossuth . . . . . 17 5. Turkish Hospitality . . . . .45

Chapter II. Staten Island, New

T0EE CITY. 1. Arrival at Staten Island . . . 51 2. Reception in New York . . . . .64 3. New York Society, Architecture, and Meetings . . 75 4. The Periodical Press in New York City . . . 102 5. Titles and Nicknames in the United States . . . 108

Chapter III

COLONISATION* — PHYSICAL AND POLITICAL C0NMGUEATI0N OP THE UNITED STATES — PARTIES, AND THEIE SUBDIVISIONS. 1. Colonisation ...... 113 2. Physical Configuration of North America . . 127 3. Political Configuration of the United States . . 142 4. American Parties and their Principles . . . . CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Philadelphia Baltijioee

Page 1. Philadelphia — The Reception — Mrs. Mott — The Prison — Independence Hall ..... 189 2. Great Men of Philadelphia . . . 202 3. Baltimore ....... 214

Chapter V. Washington City

1. Society . . . . . . 218 2. Site of the City— Pohtics . . . . .231 3. Kossuth and the Congress — Banquets — the Monuments of Washington City . . . . . . 244

Appendix

. THE N0ETHMEN IN NOETH AMEEICA WHITE, RED, AND BLACK.

Chapter I. Passage To America

I. DEPARTURE FROM ENGLAND. On the 20th of November, early in the morning, we left London and proceeded to Southampton. About a month had elapsed since Kossuth had landed there, and was received as no other foreigner ever has been received in England. A short month had won golderl opinions for him all over the country. In spite of the increasing hostility of the most influential organ of the press, he had found many a hearty friend of his cause, and many an enthusiastic admirer of his person here, where he sought but a temporary asylum for his children. The power of his eloquence had silenced many of those to whom his openly avowed principles were at least unseasonable, and, though a foreigner, he had the ear of the public. His stay in England was an uninterrupted triumph unexpected to him ; in our selfish prosaic age, it seemed like a tale of the ' Arabian Nights.' His friends in Southampton — for they had i. SOUTHAMPTON. become his friends during the short time of his stay amongst them — wished to give him as cordial a fare well as the welcome had been splendid ; they were as sembled at the railway terminus, and we were greeted with deafening cheers.

Mr. Andrews was here, the frank and open-hearted Mayor of Southampton, a "self-made" man, and a living evidence that, even in the Old World, honest industry can raise an enterpris ing character from the rank of a daily labourer to a highly-respected public and political station. He was accompanied by Mr. Deacon, the accomplished town clerk, who knows how to enjoy wisely what he has earned honorably. After an elegant luncheon in the house of the Consul of the United States, Mr. Rodney Croskey, an American gentleman, whose acute Yankee judiciousness, matured by long European experience, make him fit for a far more important station in the service of his country, we went to the pier, followed by thousands of the people who had turned out with flying banners to catch a glimpse of the Hun garian chief.

They pressed around us to shake his hands once more, and when we reached the Jupiter, the splendid steam-boat of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, they bade us farewell, with three times three, whilst the Jupiter hoisted the Hungarian colours, greeted by a royal salute from the guns of Southampton. The Jupiter went slowly down the Southampton Waters towards Cowes, there to meet the Humboldt, which was to carry us to the United States. A farewell banquet followed in the saloon, and THE HUMBOLDT. speeches were made, toasts drunk, and cheers uttered, whilst the band on deck played polkas and waltzes, and dancing went on until dusk, when our South ampton friends took leave. A second steamer carried us to Cowes : it was night when we reached the port, but the Humboldt was not yet in sight. A little tired by the entertainment, we rested for a while in an hotel, accompanied by Lord Dudley Stuart, the friend of the oppressed, the advocate of the balance of power, — a theory which is still recognised necessary for the maintenance of peace by every English states man, but when infringed, is never maintained by any one of them.

Our rest did not last long, as it had transpired that Kossuth was in the town, and a crowd surrounded the hotel with loud cheers. The report of a gun announced now the approach of the Hum boldt, which soon appeared in the darkness like a fire-vomiting dragon. Some minutes more, and we were on board. The Humboldt is an excellent specimen of those floating palaces, which make the communication with America so easy and comfortable, that materially the Atlantic has become a safe highroad between the two great countries, whilst, morally, the interests of both have grown indissoluble. A mere fortnight's trip carries you to the United States, a country whose institutions are based on principles altogether different from those which we are accustomed to see operating in the Old World : you do not spend more time for this excursion than the Pythagorases and Lycurguses, EUROPE AND EGYPT. the Solons and Herodotuses, when they saded from new Greece to ancient Egypt.

Greece then, not yet embellished by arts, developing the resources of her unparalleled geographical position with all the vigour and arrogance of a youth proud of his future, despised the rigid forms of old Egypt, and the experience gathered there for thousands of years ; but her sages seeking information, still visited the land of the Nile, whose theocratical and monarchical spirit, and those colossal monuments of art, pervaded by the same spirit, remained for them an unsolved but admired riddle. The Egyptian priest smiled at the inquisitiveness of the Greek mind; he declared openly to Solon, that the Greeks are really but children, — and, infatuated by the traditionary wisdom of his forefathers, he neglected to study the new development of the human mind in Greece. He clung too tightly to those ancient forms, from which the spirit was already beginning to depart; his political independence once broken by the Persians, his refined civilisation, and his energetical nationality was cor roded by the Greek and Roman genius, which could not assimilate with the Egyptian institutions : it perished without even giving to the world the example of a patriotic struggle against the fate.

They were dead and mummified long before they were swept away. — It is a lesson which old Europe should re member. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS. A winter passage to America is a most unpleasant expedition ; the cold prevents you from remaining on deck, and the gales and rains, so frequent in November and December, produce very soon their natural con sequence, sea-sickness, among the passengers. Of all our party there were only Mr. Lemmi, Colonel Ihasz, and myself, who did not suffer. Of course we had to comfort and to amuse our friends, though we also felt a little uneasy, and were at least not fit for any serious occupation. We spent our leisure as pleasantly as might be, in playing chess, talking politics, and musing. I examined tbe ship's library in the saloon, and found here Bancroft's most excellent and very popular History of North America.

He has again directed our attention to the expedition of De Soto, and his discovery of the Mississippi Valley, which was not less adventurous than that of Cortes. He impartially acknowledges the merits of Marquette, La Salle, and the French Jesuits : why is it then that he neglects altogether the illustrious names of those Northmen who, long before Columbus, had settled in Greenland, and sent their trading and exploring expeditions into the present territory of the United States ? The history of those early discoveries is even more interesting than the adventures of De Soto, or of La Salle ; they vie in romantic interest with those of Columbus ; but, whilst the name of the great Genoese is known all over the world, Erik the Red and his children are forgotten, even by those who do not dare to doubt the fact of the early discovery of America by the Northmen, because they have seen it affirmed in Humboldt's Cosmus, or Cantu's History. ■» Englishmen may say that the discovery of Green land and the Western continent by the Northmen has lest no permanent results on the world, and, alas ! we are all too apt to measure men and facts by the ultimate result only ; for an American, however, the colonisation of Greenland, and the discovery of New England has also a patriotic interest; and, besides, it remains a question to be decided, whether the traditions of the Northmen had not a considerable influence on Columbus ; in every case they strengthened his belief in the possibility of finding a Western country, though he took it for the Eastern shore of the Indies and China.

There is also another remark able interest attached to the track of the bold sea farers of Norway. The submarine telegraphs laid down between the shores of England and France, and of Scotland and Ireland, are thought by many the. precursors of a great line between Europe and America, though to convey and lay down a wire and cable three thousand miles long seems to be impossible. But the difficulties are greatly diminished, if the telegraph is to be carried — as it has already been suggested— from the Orkneys first to the Faroes, then to Iceland, so on to Greenland, and from Cape FareweU, across Baffin's Bay, to Labrador and the United States. In this direction the greatest distance from shore to shore would be shortened to five hundred miles. And this is precisely the line pur sued by the Northmen, the easiest way to the Western continent.

One of those Norwegian adventurers, who, half pirates, half merchants, so often visited the north of England, Scotland, and Ireland, for purposes either of trade or plunder, discovered Iceland in the ninth century. Norwegian chiefs and freemen, fleeing from the oppression of King Harold Harfagar, colonised the snowy island. Erik the Red, when banished from Iceland for manslaughter, sailed farther west, and came upon Greenland, towards the end of the tenth century. Many friends accompanied and fol lowed him thither, whdst one of them, Biarni, was carried in a south-westerly direction, towards New England ; but, from his anxiety to arrive in Green land, he did not land on the shore w-hich he saw. Leif, the son of Erik, immediately perceived the im portance of the new discovery, fitted out an expe dition, and proceeded first to Newfoundland, then to Nova Scotia, and, at last, to the coasts of New England.

He remained there during winter, and returned with a cargo of grapes and timber. For seafarers, in a woodless country, this latter was of invaluable importance, and, therefore, several mem bers of Leif's family explored successively the newly discovered countries, especially Markland, the country of wood (Nova Scotia), and Vinland, the wine land (New England), in order to settle upon them. But the hostdity of the aborigines, and the difficulties of the passage — several ships having been carried away by storms into the ocean — impeded their lasting colonisation of the Western continent. Separated by a dangerous sea from the mainland, Greenland could not become for America, what the Highland of Tartary had been for Asia. The new country was visited by trading parties only. The annals of Iceland mention, as late as 1121, that Bishop Erik of Greenland sailed from thence to Vinland ; the priests Adalbrand and Thorwald visited Helluland in 1285, and called it Nyja Funda Land (New Found Land); the Norwegian King Erik the Priest-hater despatched Landa-Rolf, in 1289-90, to find out this country; and, in 1347, a Greenland ship is mentioned again, which had been on a trading voyage to Markland.

The personal adventures of the early discoverers of America before Columbus are recorded at length in one of the most beautiful works of penmanship in Iceland, written between 1387 and 1395, the cele brated ' Codex Flatoiensis,' preserved now in the Royal Library at Copenhagen ; and it is a weU-known fact, that Columbus, in 1477, visited Iceland, where the traditions about Vinland were yet alive, though all connection with the colony of Greenland had ceased. The last bishop of Greenland was appointed in 1406. Since that time the colony has never been heard of, though it consisted then of 280 settlements. Queen Margaret, on whom the three Northern crowns had devolved in 1387, had made the trade to Greenland and Iceland a royal mono poly, which could only be carried on in ships be longing to the sovereign, or licensed by him, and certain merchants, who had visited Greenland, were accused of treason, and only escaped punishment by pleading that stress of weather had driven them to those parts.

Under the monopoly the Icelanders could have no vessels, and no object for sailing* to Greenland, and the colony gradually fell into oblivion. When, in 1721, the Norwegian clergyman, Hans Egede, resigned his living in Norway, and obtained permission, after many difficulties and petitions to government, to settle as a missionary among the Esquimaux in Greenland, he found no traces of the missing colony; it had perished altogether. At a later time, ruins of great churches, and tombstones with old inscriptions, were found in different places, but no record has been preserved mentioning the way in which those flourishing settlements had been broken up. Mystery hangs over their fate. The Northmen were undoubtedly the first dis coverers and first white settlers of America ; but long before them, the old Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans had a vague tradition about a great Western country across the ocean — the mythical Atlantis.

It is not less interesting to see that the Chinese, too, had 1 I MARTIN BEHAIM. similar traditions about the East land, Foo-sung, and that the site of America is noticed on their ancient maps, though not as a mainland, but as a group of large islands. The East as wed as the West had a dim presentiment of the existence of a New World, — of a continent different from the Old one. The Lish traditions of Ireland the Great, in the west ; and the Welsh chronicle of Prince Madoc, son of Owen Gwynned, who left Wales towards the end of the twelfth century, disgusted with her feuds, and having disaovered a fertde country in the west, put again to sea with ten ships, and was never more heard of, — fomi a new link to the evidences showing that a Western continent was dreamt of long before Columbus. Not only the Northmen but the Germans, too, claim their share in the discovery of the new Con tinent, and vindicate the merits of their countryman, Martin Behaim, of Nuremberg.

He was a distinguished astronomer, of the school of John Regiomon tanus, and one of the boldest seafarers of the fifteenth century. By introducing the use of the astrolabe, he gave to the navigators the possibility of taking the latitude, and ascertaining more precisely the direction of sailing ; in the service of King John the Second of Portugal, he, discovered the coasts of Congo in Africa, and founded settlements on the Azores. Knighted by his master, he married the daughter of Don Job de Huerta, the governor of Fayal, where he remained for several years. On one of his expe- MARTIN BEHAIM. 11 ditions, in .1483, ten years before the journey of Columbus, gales and eastern winds drove him from the Azores to the coasts of Brazds — the Prajas of Pernambuco. He thought the Southern continent a large island, and took possession of it for the crown of Portugal.

Unaware of the importance of his dis covery, he did not pursue it, but on the celebrated globe which he made in 1491, and which is preserved untd now in the Library of Nuremberg, he recorded it, though he took the Brazils for an island belonging to the East Indies, as at this time the shores of India and China were thought to extend much farther east than they ready do, and Columbus himself believed his own discovery in the Caribbean Sea to be a part of India. The great Genoese, who had come as far north as Iceland, in order to get information about the Western hemisphere, had visited also Behaim at Madeira ; he became his friend, and the German seafarer communicated his maps and experience to his Italian comrade. For this reason, French, German and Portuguese historians call Behaim the discoverer of America, though Columbus, after having collected all the traditions and all the theoretical and practical evidences of the existence of a Western country, was the first who had the courage and the endurance to seek those shores, which others had seen by chance, and to turn them into account for himself and his master.

When afterwards his name became celebrated, his detractors remembered all the ancient traditions and recent fortuitous discoveries, and found AMERICANS IN EUROPE. that the merits of the Genoese were but small ; but Columbus did not claim a greater share of renown than ready was due to him. The anecdote of the egg shows clearly that he claimed only the merit of having been the first who did intentionally what others might have done, had they had his powers of com bining and his perseverance; the premises were known to everybody, he was the first to draw the conclusion. But in every case Behaim deserves to be remembered with Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco de Gama, with Columbus and Magellan, with Cabot and Cabral. He was the first who, in the Pyrenean Peninsula, diffused the knowledge about the real spherical form of the earth, who by improvements in taking the latitude, made long navigations possible across the ocean, and who by his own expeditions, showed to the bold adventurers how much they may risk, and how much there remains to discover.

III. THE AMERICANS IN EUROPE. The passengers on board of the Humboldt presented a most varied assembly. The majority were Americans returning home ; there was besides a Mexican Commo dore, who had lost his left arm in one of the battles of the Republic, 1 think before Vera Cruz ; an old German resident of Havanna, who had become a thorough Cuban, losing his temper regularly as often as the expedition of Lopez was mentioned, severa" AMERICANS IN EUROPE. Frenchmen engaged in business, several German emigrants, and Lola Montes. Though sea-sickness prevailed almost all the time of the passage, principally amongst the ladies, and the social intercourse was very limited, yet I had leisure and occasion to begin my studies of American character. I found amongst my fellow-passengers a very intelligent, sharp merchant from western New York, wed acquainted with European and American politics, who, at my request, endeavoured to explain to me the dovetaded state of parties in the United States, which I was shortly to witness myself.

He was a sound American patriot, but the strong party feeling, which characterises his countrymen in the States, was some what smoothed down by a longer residence in Europe. His stay in the old country had evidently had its good effect upon him. He was proud of being a republican, as all Americans are; but as he was a merchant who had visited Europe on business, he had no cravings to be introduced to the courts of the continent, and to the fashionable circles of the West End : he had therefore no reason to atone for his native republicanism by senile admiration of despotism abroad, and by the fashionable abuse of every republican feeling on the continent of Europe. It is certainly striking, though easy to explain, that the majority of Americans who cross the Atlantic make themselves prominent in Europe by advocating oppression and absolutism, and abominating everything analogous to their own institutions.

Of course EUROPEAN SOCIETY. they are not fair specimens of the American character, and it would be very unjust to judge the citizens of the United States by the great bulk of the samples coming to Em-ope. Those who travel for pleasure are nearly all inhabitants of the large commercial cities, and of the sea coast States, more or less connected by business with the conservative Stock Exchanges of London and Paris. With the natural inquisitiveness of their country, they wish to see in Europe such things as they cannot see in America. The taste for fine arts is not yet enough developed in the States, to give those tourists a last ing pleasure in the galleries and museums of the Old World ; and besides, their time is always too much limited to enjoy the works of art as we do ; a cursory view of the monuments being always tiresome, even for those who have learnt how to see them.

The intercourse with the people, the study of the working of European institutions on the masses, requires yet more leisure, and a more philosophical and serious turn of mind than suits with a short pleasure trip, even for those who are ardent politicians in America, but who have left their country for relaxation, and to get rid for a time of politics. But one source for gathering information is always open to them, and it has irresistible charms for every American on account of its novelty^-this is, European society. To be introduced to a lord, to be invited to a bad at the Tuileries, to be presented at a court, should it be even the court of Prince Reuss Schleiz, or Lippe AMERICAN TRAVELLERS. 15 Detmold, — no matter, it is an attraction greater yet for a travelling Yankee than even for an English correspondent of 'The Times.' To obtain this aim, he gives up, not only his open democratic frankness, but even his republican pride.

Fitted out by the first Parisian tador, studying easy manners at the Jardin Mabille, learning continental politics from the weathercocks of the ' Party of Order,' and the ' Jour nal des Debats,' he creeps into society, flattering the principles of violence and oppression ; unaware that the same society would have admitted him with more regard, had he come as an upright republican, who does not obtrude his principles of Uberty, but whose demeanour itself is a living evidence of the soundness of American institutions. We have seen American travellers atvthe Sorbonne, hastening to the professor's chair, in order to shake hands with Michel Chevalier, amidst the hisses of the French audience, when this ex-Saint Simonist and ex-councdlor of state called the February revolution, and the establishment of a republic in France, a disastrous event ; and we have heard others admir ing the Russian institutions for the preservation of order and security, because the driver of the tourist was flogged without any inquest and trial by a government official, upon the simple statement of the American gentleman, that his carriage was upset by the carelessness of the driver; but, on the other side, we have occasionally made the acquaintance of several Americans in Em-ope who did not belong to GRAND DUKE CONSTANTINE. this class.

I cannot refrain from mentioning here an anecdote, which shows how republican pride can be combined with courtesy. An American traveller, in St. Petersburgh, went out on foot in March, when the snow was melting after a sudden rain. The streets presented the aspect of extensive puddles, separated at the crossings by a ridge of more solid snow, over which the foot passengers worked their toilsome way. The American was just in the midst of such a snowbridge, when he suddenly recognised the Grand Duke Constantine, in plain clothes, followed by his aide-de-camp, coming from the opposite side. The foot-path between the two puddles was not broad enough to let two persons pass by, and Mr. * * * did not wish either to turn his back uncourteously to the prince by returning from whence he came, nor to step servdely into the water; he therefore, pulling out his purse, presented it to the Grand Duke, and asked: "Odd or even?"