bad in themselves, belonged
to a period of growth and were certain to pass away. Not the slightest
sympathy existed with the feelings and aspirations of a people closely
allied in blood and speech, and the lack of desire involved the lack of
ability to enter into the spirit of their institutions. There was no
idea that there could be other types of character than those found on
British soil, or any room or reason for the play of other social and
political forces than were at work in British communities.

At the time, however, that Cooper took up his residence in Europe there
was more than supercilious indifference in the character of English
criticism. There was steady misrepresentation and abuse, due in a few
cases to design, in more to ignorance, in most to that disposition on
the part of all men to believe readily what they wish ardently. It made
little difference whether the writer were Whig or Tory. If anything the
open dislike of the latter was preferable to the patronizing regard of
the former. In 1804 the poet Moore visited America. He wrote home a
number of poetical epistles, in which he told his friends that he had
found us old in our youth and blasted in our prime. The demon gold was
running loose; everything and everybody was corrupt; truth, (p. 089)
conscience, and virtue were regularly made matters of barter and sale. A
succession of English travelers repeated from year to year the same
dismal story, and their statements were caught up and paraded and dwelt
upon in the English periodical press. In "The Quarterly Review," in
particular, our condition was constantly held up as an awful example of
the results of democratic institutions and universal suffrage. Certain
facts and predictions had been repeated so often that they came to be
accepted and believed by all. We spoke a dialect of the English tongue;
our manners were bad, if we could be said to have any at all; loyalty we
could know nothing about, because we had no king; religion we were
entirely devoid of, because there was no established church; the
federation was steadily tending towards monarchy; the wealthy were
longing to be nobles; and the Union could not last above a quarter of a
century. Worse than all, intrigue and bribery were sapping the national
life; or to use a still favorite phrase of the newspapers, though the
repetition of a hundred years has now made it somewhat stale, corruption
was preying upon the vitals of the republic.