8 DISTINCTIVE XAME FOR THE V. S. 



BUGGESTION OF A DISTIIVCTIVE NAME FOR THE UNITED STATES. 



BY PROF. S. S. HALDEMAN, MARIETTA, PA. 



The fact that our country is without a distinctive appellation has 

 been discussed from time to time, though not with sufficient earnestness 

 to induce the '•'•American^'' Congress to act upon it. Yet ours is not the 

 only country without a name, the British Islands being in the same pre- 

 dicament; and if we cannot appropriate the name "American" to our- 

 selves alone, the native of the Island of Jersey is nothing more than a 

 Jerseyman, although a Scotsman may be a Briton. The impropriety of 

 giving us an exclusive riglit to the term "American" is so evident, that 

 that of "Anglo-American" is frequently substituted. This however is 

 even more erroneous, as it must include the Americans of French descent 

 in Louisiana and Canada, those of the Dutch in New York, and the 

 German population (amounting to about one-third of the whole) of 

 Pennsylvania and Ohio. 



This country is sometimes called Colu^ibia, a name which has be- 

 come inapplicable since its adoption by one of the South American re- 

 publics. Frcelonia^ which is supposed to be derived from frecdmn, has 

 its advocates, but the choice of it would justly subject the country to 

 ridicule, as the word is a hybrid. Its true form, according to the sense- 

 is Liberia, but this is also inadmissible. 



If a name could be selected which would have a definite meaning, 

 and could be readily adopted by foreign nations, it would answer better 

 than any local or Indian appellation, and such a one, connected with 

 classical associations, would be at once appreciatetl at home and abroad. 



In a geogi-aphical point of view Asia is always considered as lying 

 towards the east, and America in the west ; and the ancients believed in 

 the existence of a country west of the Atlantic, this ocean being named 

 from Atlas the brother of Hesper or Hesperus, the father of the Hespe- 

 rides. The evening" star was called Hesperus as appearing in the west_ 

 and the Atlantic was sometimes called the Hesperian sea. Hesperus had 

 a daughter named Hesperia, married to Atlas, and their daughters were 

 the Hesperides, whose country was in the extreme west towairds sun- 

 set, whence they were also called the daughters of Nox. 



The Greeks sometimes called Italy Hesperia, and the Romans gave 

 the same name to Spain or Hispania, on account of the locstern position 

 of these countries respectively. Now the United States lie directly west 

 of the civilized nations of antiquity, and are consequently pre-eminently 

 entitled to the classic name Hesperia; a name not now in use for any 

 country, and if it ho thought to apply to the whole continent, it cannot 

 be inappropriate when restricted to the oldest and most influential of the 



