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burglary and the like, are I believe as little to be dreaded by the peaceable inhabitants, as in most other countries. I take a pleasure in stating this, as from the accounts published by some of our countrymen, it might be inferred that America is the land of lawless rapine. During my whole journey, I heard of no alarming outrages except by some incendiaries in Philadelphia. The inhabitants in general seemed to be as little afraid of aggression, as were the people of the poetical Golden Age.

CHAPTER XXXII.

NATIONAL CHARACTER.

FROM the antecedent chapters of this work, a tolerably correct estimate of the national character of the Americans, may I believe be formed. But as some advantage may arise from a concentrated view, and as some traits have not yet been alluded to, I shall endeavour in this chapter to give such a sketch as may correspond with the plan hitherto adopted. I am very sensible of the mistakes into which writers prone to generalization are apt to fall; but as my opportunities of forming a right judgment were as considerable as could reasonably be expected in the time I had, and as candour will guide my pen, I trust that I shall be found in general to be correct. The repetition of a few particulars, will, under this consideration, be excused by the reader who has had the patience to accompany me regularly thus far. I must premise that considerable diversity prevails in the different districts of the country. Yet as the general outline is sufficiently correspondent to enable something of a common character to be applicable to them all, I do not

think that much inconvenience will arise from placing them in one group. It is however absolutely necessary to keep the blacks distinct from the whites, as the two races are not at present so incorporated as to be one people. In the first place therefore, let me attempt to describe the blacks.

Being chiefly in menial situations, and in all parts ranked below the whites, the blacks have had little opportunity of becoming polished and educated; and taking every thing into account connected with their comparative disadvantages, I think we ought rather to wonder that their character is so fair as it is, than that it is no better. So long as men are excluded from the society of those more refined and better informed than themselves, they cannot be expected to advance otherwise than slowly in the improvement of their minds and manners. In mental cultivation the blacks are particularly deficient. Of the thousands amongst them who possess a nominal freedom, I question whether there are half a dozen who have had a liberal, classical education. I heard of only two who had been so fortunate, to neither of whom did I chance to get introduced. Several of those however with whom I conversed showed themselves equal to the whites in a simi

lar station, and two or three I thought rather superior. One man in particular who told me that he was born a slave, showed a degree of good sense and reason very pleasing. In their mo rals, they are nearly on a level with the whites, except the female coloured girls in the southern States who have certainly more lubricity than the white girls. As far as regularity in the attendance of public worship is a proof of being religious, the coloured people may safely be compared with the rest of the community, and pro* nounced as religious as any.

In the slave States they are very obsequious in their behaviour, scarcely daring to pass a white man on the road without making some token indicative of his superiority. I do not now allude to the slaves, but to those who have obtained their freedom, for the slaves seem to be as much afraid of their masters as Caliban of Prospero, and are treated in their turn as contemptuously as Shakspeare describes that hag-begotten monster to have been, with the exception however of such of them as are retained as domestic servants. In the free States, the blacks assume a freer deportment, and which to whites who travel from the south to the north is very annoying. I heard some persons from New Orleans complain loudly

of the insolence of the blacks of New York, in presuming to take the wall in walking the streets, instead of always yielding it to the whites. But as to any real insolence, I must say that I noticed as little of it in them as in the whites of the working class. Amongst the blacks of the better sort, I met several whose behaviour was entitled to a higher epithet than civil; it was, though not very polished, decorous and respectfully attentive. Having a desire to attend a sitting of the Conference of the Methodist church of the coloured people, I waited on the chairman, and requested as a favour that I might be allowed to enter the room. They usually sit with closed doors; but my request was complied with. On entering, I was invited to take a seat near the chairman. I did so, and both then and at other times when I conversed with him, I found that he could demean himself in a very agreeable manner. A minister amongst the Baptists, with whom I held a lengthened conversation, seemed also to be of pleasing manners. And I saw a man at Alexandria in the District of Columbia, who had as captivating behaviour as I have often seen. I believe I may say that I was more struck with his elegance, than with that of any white in the town, though I was at the houses of some of the more wealthy inhabitants.

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