504 Letters from the United States of Noiih America. [May, 



A word or two now of the literature of this people — a subject I see of 

 much interest with you, if I may judge by what your magazine people 

 say. 



There is no want of material here for any sort of books ; nor, would 

 you believe it, for any sort of literary workman. If great things have 

 not been done hitherto, it is not so much because of the dearth of mate- 

 rial, or of workmen, as, to my view, because of the law, which regulates 

 the property in literature. There is much trouble and not much safety 

 in the copyright of a native work here. It should be altered ; and I have 

 an idea that one alteration which I could now suggest, and which has 

 never been thought of, so far as I know, by any creature alive (or dead, if 

 you will), might be of itself enough to secure a sudden growth, and a 

 prodigious growth too, of native American literature — a body of new 

 and brave literature worth having, before a dozen years were well over. 

 British books are now published in America, without any expense for 

 authorship to the American publisher — that is, without profit, pay, or 

 reward, to the British writer or publisher, and without any cost for the 

 copyright to the American publisher. Of course the American writer, 

 to be on a par with the British writers who supply America, must be 

 able to write for nothing ; and able to strive, at the same time, against 

 a body of British writers, who have nothing else to do but make 

 books, and are paid generously for making them. Now, our idea is (or 

 mine rather, for we are one here) that, if what are called protecting 

 duties were ever justifiable, they would be here, in this particular case, 

 for the encouragement of native literature in America. And why ? 

 Because, I hold, tiiat a native literature must be had, for a time of peace, 

 for the very reason that a native militia must be had, for a time of war. 

 It may be cheaper to employ foreign writers ; and so it may be cheaper 

 to employ foreign troops — cheaper for a while ; but is it so safe ? is it 

 so cheap in the long run ? A people require to be defended, whatever 

 may be the cost, by native troops. Your writers in a time of peace, and 

 your militia in a time of war, have a like duty to perform. The character 

 of a people, in a period of peace, can be elevated much by their literature, 

 and by their negotiation — little, by any thing else : for, do what they 

 may, and be what they may, there is no proof like their own books of 

 their own state and ability. If the Americans would have a literature 

 of their own — a literature of advantage to their character as a people (for 

 whatever may be their knowledge of the literature of another people, 

 that knowledge is of little worth to their character), they must enable 

 their own writei-s to strive side by side, in their own market, for a 

 while, if not for ever, with British writers. I am thoroughly opposed 

 to the practice of restrictioh, as a general practice. I deny the advan^ 

 tage of a protecting duty, where the chief interest or whole interest of 

 a people is to have, whatever they have at all, cheap ; I deny the advan- 

 tage of a protecting duty in almost every other case, therefore ; but in this 

 jjarticular case, which I regard as a sort of anomaly, I contend that, to 

 get the thing cheap, however good it may be, is not the chief object. 

 I contend that it is of more value to a country, for its character and 

 safety, that this particular thing should be native — than that it should 

 be cheap ; just as I say that, even though it be cheaper to defend your 

 state by mercenaries from abroad, it is better to defend it by natives. 

 But how are the Americans to protect this manufacture ? By a very 

 simple and a very sure way. Let them pass a law permitting a British 



