d Escapes--The
Morality of Congress--Political Corruption and the Irish--
Democrat and Republican.

The American people ought cordially to cherish Englishmen who come to
the United States to live, if only for the reason that they have never
organised for political purposes. In every election, all over the United
States, one hears of the Irish vote, the German vote, the Scandinavian
vote, the Italian vote, the French vote, the Polish vote, the Hebrew
vote, and many other votes, each representing a _clientele_ which has to
be conciliated or cajoled. But none has ever yet heard of the English
vote or of an "English-American" element in the population. It is not
that the Englishman, whether a naturalised American or not, does not
take as keen an interest in the politics of the country as the people of
any other nation; on the contrary, he is incomparably better equipped
than any other to take that interest intelligently. But he plays his
part as if it were in the politics of his own country, guided by
precisely the same considerations as the American voters around
him.[227:1]

The individual Irishman or German will often take pride in splitting off
from the people of his own blood in matters political and voting "as an
American." It never occurs to the Englishman to do otherwise. The
Irishman and the German will often boast, or you will hear it claimed
for them, that they become assimilated quickly and that "in time," or
"in the second generation," they are good Americans. The Englishman
needs no assimilation; but feels himself to be, almost from the day when
he lands (provided that he comes to live and not as a tourist), of one
substance and colour with the people about him. Not seldom he is rather
annoyed that those around him, remembering that he is English, seem to
expect of him the sentiments of a "foreigner," which he in no way feels.

More than once, it is true, during my residence in America I have been
approached by individuals or by committees, with invitations to
associate myself with some proposed political organisation of Englishmen
"to make our weight felt;" but in justice to those who have made the
suggestion it should be said that it has always been the outcome of
exasperation at a moment either when Fenianism was peculiarly rampant in
the neighbourhood, or when members of other nationalities were doing
their best to create ill-will between Great Britain and the United
States. The idea of orga