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He cannot be made to avow his own opinions-no responsibility can be fixed upon him. He must work the business of the government, through private arrangements with members of the House, and use patronage to supply the place of ability or knowledge. We have some impatience of the very idea of what is called "back-stairs" influence, and what shall we say to a system, in which the whole business of the government, is conducted on the back-stairs principle, and where, indeed, there can be no other? We should expect to see in the result precisely that political corruption, which all parties in the United States admit to exist there.

And not only is this the system of government which prevails there, but the ministry, thus connected with the representatives of the people, through the influence of office alone, can retain their power, so long as they agree with the President, for the four years of his tenure of office. They can do so against the will of the whole people, and of both Houses of Congress. It is quite true they require money; this must be voted; and this necessity would appear to give an effectual, controlling power. But in practice it has no such result: so great is the secret influence of the Government in the House, that although it has sometimes occurred, that the ministry have been in opposition to a majority of the House, we cannot find that they have ever yet failed to obtain the money votes required.

It would convey a less unsatisfactory impression of the system, if they had failed. As yet this has not occurred, and there is no such thing really known to the American system, as ministerial responsibility to the people. Whilst with us, the people possess through their representatives, an ever-vigilant power over the government, which they can put into operation on any night of debate, and do constantly exercise-there is in America, no more real practical power over the ministry, than there is real choice in the election of President. It would seem as if we, ourselves, were in the use and enjoyment of republican institutions, whilst the people of the United States content themselves with the theory, and profession, and sound of them.

Reviewing the preceding facts, we certainly find much that is at variance, with our most cherished ideas of constitutional government. Either, after five hundred years' experience, we are ignorant of what representative institutions ought to be, or else these stand in need of very radical reform. They explain, what else would be incomprehensible, such a course of legislation as we have witnessed during the present crisis, when, if ever, the calm wisdom of a senate was required. We see the true spirit of the Constitution, lost or perverted, the nominal power of the people, really in the hands of trading politicians, the electoral college, whose office is selection, deprived of the function of choice, the ruler of the State so ap

pointed, as to bar out experience and talent,legislation converted into a livelihood, and parliamentary corruption organized into a profession, -two armies of place-holders, one besieging, and the other besieged,-ministerial ability and knowledge excluded from parliamentary discussion, and ministerial responsibility exchanged for government influence. As the result of all this, we find an incessant decline in the ability at the head of the State, and in the character of its legislation; and, in spite of rare material advantages, an amount of embittered discontent which has at length culminated in civil war. We have, however, as yet examined but one part of the subject, the political institutions of the Union. Before we can form a full impression of the value of the Union itself, we must also consider its effect on the character of the people, in their social or public life.

CHAPTER II.

EFFECTS OF THE UNION ON NATIONAL CHARACTER.

THE American, of the middle class, may be said to have two distinct characters. In private life, a most agreeable companion, full of general information, of a pleasant temper, fulfilling all domestic duties in an exemplary manner. The same person in public life, upon American topics, will become at once arrogant, quarrelsome, full of wrong impressions as to much of the real history of his own country, unable to realize the motives that actuate the policy of this country. Even his standard of right and wrong will alter. Perfectly honourable as an individual, he will be prepared as a Unionist, to defend any principle, even that of mere spoliation under the name of manifest destiny, when regarded as part of the policy of the Union. There is evidently some sinister influence, which, leaving him the same as a man, has entirely changed his sentiments as an American.

We are not now alluding to (and entirely exclude from all our observations) that small number of men of letters, ministers of religion, or eminent merchants, who come over to Europe, with whom

friendships are formed, which are based on esteem. Combining European sentiment with an energy peculiarly their own, and possessing views enlarged by a knowledge of the world, these are in every respect exceptions to the mass, and it will be very necessary to escape from impressions, produced by their acquaintance, if we are to form a correct judgment of those, who are the political power in

the United States.

Has the Union exercised any influence, that will account for this difference between the man and the citizen? The immediate idea which it awakens in the mind, is that of magnitude. Apart from it, the States, although on the average larger than the secondary kingdoms of Europe, would still excite no wonder. But regarded as a Union,as a whole, the mind becomes at once impressed and filled, with a sense of colossal magnitude. Natural features of the country tend to add to the impression-the enormous length of its rivers, the vast dimensions of its lakes, the interminable expanse of the prairie-all surrounding circumstances combine to foster the idea, until at length, as we have observed, magnitude, has been adopted in the popular mind as the summum bonum; mere quantity, becoming the standard of value, in place of excellence or worth.

If this be the case, we should expect to find, as natural developments of this change from the original standard, a general tendency to amplification, to exaggeration, to an ambitious craving for

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