Geo Francis Train Unionist On T Colley Grattan Secessionist
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: YOUNG AMERICA AFTER OLD IRELAND. " There are many things in this book which are good, and many things which are new-, but the things which are good are not new ? and the things which are new are not good.1' . Imagine the excited feelings of the young authoj, when he saw how Sydney Smith introduced him to the public in the pithy review above quoted. Had the witty divine lived to see Grattan's work, notwithstanding his Pennsylvania speculations, I am sure that he would have said something more pointed, more caustic, more bitter against the distinguished writer who should labor twenty years in hashing up all the stock slanders, in order to convince the English people that the Americans are vulgar, ungentlemanly, dishonest, and unworthy of being exalted to an Englishman's confidence. Americans deserve better t
...reatment from the late British Consul at Boston. He accepts their hospitalities, and abuses their courtesy; he laughs at the guests, sneers at the host, and finds fault where others praise. Every American I meet asks me, " Have you read Grattan's book?" and then he storms away, calling it "antiquated conceit," " lukewarm libels," " ancient jokes; " adding, that it is the most severe of anything ever written on America! " Civilized America! " they say the very title indicates a sneer. I respond by telling them they must admit the truth ? select the good, reject the bad. But some of my friends see nothing to commend : that is not fair ? I see many points of merit. They laugh at the "sell" of the sea-serpent, at Nahant, and think it must have been a shoal of porpoises or an exiled whale ; but I consider it a more decent story than many of the other stories which he has told! The words used to me by those who have read the book, are ? "base calumnies," "animus ? injustice," ...
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