Such Was Not The Phase Of Character Which I Had Expected To Find
Among The People Of The West.
Of all virtues patience would have
been the last which I should have thought of attributing to them.
I
should have expected to see them angry when robbed of their time,
and irritable under the stress of such grievances as railway delays;
but they are never irritable under such circumstances as I have
attempted to describe, nor, indeed, are they a people prone to
irritation under any grievances. Even in political matters they are
long-enduring, and do not form themselves into mobs for the
expression of hot opinion. We in England thought that masses of the
people would rise in anger if Mr. Lincoln's government should
consent to give up Slidell and Mason; but the people bore it without
any rising. The habeas corpus has been suspended, the liberty of
the press has been destroyed for a time, the telegraph wires have
been taken up by the government into their own hands, but
nevertheless the people have said nothing. There has been no rising
of a mob, and not even an expression of an adverse opinion. The
people require to be allowed to vote periodically, and, having
acquired that privilege, permit other matters to go by the board.
In this respect we have, I think, in some degree misunderstood their
character. They have all been taught to reverence the nature of
that form of government under which they live, but they are not
specially addicted to hot political fermentation.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 255 of 531
Words from 68275 to 68533
of 142339
