" Can it be matter
of surprise that when the stranger sees these men so prominent in print
and in society, (in many instances quite deservedly), he should mistake
their influence, and attach an importance to their opinions which they
do not deserve? That Europe has been receiving false notions of America
from some source, during the present century, is proved by the results
so completely discrediting her open predictions; and, while I know that
many Americans have innocently aided in the deception, I have little
doubt that the foreign merchants established in the country have been
one of the principal causes of the errors.

It is only necessary to look back within our own time, to note the
progress of opinion, and to appreciate the value of those notions that
some still cherish, as containing all that is sound and true in human
policy. Thirty years ago, the opinion that it was unsafe to teach the
inferior classes to read, "_as it only enabled then to read bad books_,"
was a common and favourite sentiment of the upper classes in England.
To-day, it is a part of the established system of Austria to instruct
her people! I confess that I now feel mortified and grieved when I meet
with an American gentleman who professes anything but liberal opinions,
as respects the rights of his fellow-creatures. Although never
illiberal, I trust, I do not pretend that my own notions have not
undergone changes, since, by being removed from the pressure of the
society in which I was born, my position, perhaps, enables me to look
around, less influenced by personal considerations than is usual; but
one of the strongest feelings created by an absence of so many years
from he me, is the conviction that no American can justly lay claim to
be, what might be and ought to be the most exalted of human beings, the
milder graces of the Christian character excepted, an American
gentleman, without this liberality entering thoroughly into the whole
composition of his mind. By liberal sentiments, however, I do not mean
any of the fraudulent cant that is used, in order to delude the
credulous; but the generous, manly determination to let all enjoy equal
political rights, and to bring those to whom authority is necessarily
confided, as far as practicable, under the control of the community they
serve. Opinions like these have little in common with the miserable
devices of demagogues, who teach the doctrine that the people are
infallible; or that the aggreg