in reality the
true ground of peace and content. _The American has no time to be
discontented_, and this is the most praiseworthy point of their
constitution and popular life. The republican has necessarily as
many severe and arduous duties to fulfil as the inhabitants of any
monarchy--but their fulfilment is gratifying and consoling--for it
is allied to the consciousness of power. The American has no
desire for the quiet temper of the European, and least of all for
the silent happiness of the German, which last, alas! appears
since the dissipation of the intoxication of the Revolution of
March, 1848, to consist, as far as the great mass of the
population is concerned, merely in the egotistic repose of
self-sufficiency, weakness, and ignorance. The American finds
repose only in his house, in his family circle, and among his
children; all without the walls of that home is an incessant
working and striving, in politics as in trade--by the streets and
canals, as in the woods of the West. Different as the elements are
from which the inhabitants of the United States are formed, and
different as the circumstances may be under which they live, there
still prevails among them a certain unity of character, an
equanimity of feeling, which it would be difficult to parallel,
resulting perhaps from the very heterogeneousness and mixture of
elements itself, since no one element allows to another
pre-eminence. They have all something in common in their
appearance, which gives them the air almost of relations--something
in their gait and manners which declares them to be other than
English, Germans, or French. Through the entire land, through
every class, there is disseminated a certain refinement of manner,
an appreciation of decency and nobility of character, which
springs from a consciousness of their own rights and respect for
mankind. Even emigrants, in America, soon learn to cast aside
their rough prejudices as regards caste, for the proud affability
of the aristocratic, the vanity of the small citizen, the want of
confidence and ease in the mechanic, the slavish servitude and
snappish insolence of liveried servants, find in America no place.
_Man_ is there esteemed only as _man_--only ability gains honor--and
where _that_ is, and there alone, can true nobility be found. No
one there