it not the sole ambition of the
Americans to be just like other nations, without the means of supporting
the resemblance? We ought not to harbor any spleen or prejudice against
foreign kingdoms. This would be illiberal. They are wise, they are
respectable. We should despise the man that piques himself on his own
country, and treats all others with indiscriminate contempt. I wish to
see much less jealousy and ill-nature subsisting between the Americans
and English. But in avoiding party spirit and resentment on the one
hand, we should be very careful of servility on the other. There is a
manly pride in true independence which is equally remote from insolence
and meanness,--a pride that is characteristic of great minds. Have
Americans discovered this pride since the declaration of peace? We
boast of independence, and with propriety. But will not the same men who
glory in this great event, even in the midst of a gasconade, turn to a
foreigner, and ask him, 'What is the latest fashion in Europe?' He has
worn an elegant suit of clothes for six weeks; he might wear it a few
weeks longer, but it has not so many buttons as the last suit of my Lord
----. He throws it aside, and gets one that has. The suit costs him a
sum of money; but it keeps him in the fashion, and feeds the poor of
Great Britain or France. It is a singular phenomenon, and to posterity
it will appear incredible, that a nation of heroes, who have conquered
armies and raised an empire, should not have the spirit to say, _We will
wear our clothes as we please_.

"Let it not be thought that this is a trifling subject, a matter of no
consequence. Mankind are governed by opinion; and while we flatter
ourselves that we enjoy independence because no foreign power can impose
laws upon us, we are groaning beneath the tyranny of opinion,--a tyranny
more severe than the laws of monarchs; a dominion, voluntary, indeed,
but, for that reason, more effectual; an authority of manners, which
commands our services, and sweeps away the fruits of our labor.

"I repeat the sentiment with which I began,--the Revolution of America
is yet incomplete. We are now in a situation to answer all the purposes
of the European nations,--independent in government, and dependent in
manners. They give us their fashions; they direct our taste to make a
market for their commodities; they engross the profits of our industry,
without the hazard of defending us, or the expense of supporting our
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