True Americanism 35 



over-exaltation of the little community at the ex- 

 pense of the great nation, which produces what has 

 been described as the patriotism of the village, the 

 patriotism of the belfry. Politically, the indulgence 

 of this spirit was the chief cause of the calamities 

 which befell the ancient republics of Greece, the 

 mediaeval republics of Italy, and the petty States 

 of Germany as it was in the last century. It is 

 this spirit of provincial patriotism, this inability to 

 take a view of broad adhesion to the whole nation 

 that has been the chief among the causes that have 

 produced such anarchy in the South American 

 States, and which have resulted in presenting to 

 us, not one great Spanish-American federal nation 

 stretching from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, but 

 a squabbling multitude of revolution-ridden States, 

 not one of which stands even in the second rank 

 as a power. However, politically this question of 

 American nationality has been settled once for all. 

 We are no longer in danger of repeating in our 

 history the shameful and contemptible disasters that 

 have befallen the Spanish possessions on this con- 

 tinent since they threw off the yoke of Spain. In- 

 deed there is, all through our life, very much less 

 of this parochial spirit than there was formerly. 

 Still there is an occasional outcropping here and 

 there; and it is just as well that we should keep 

 steadily in mind the futility of talking of a North- 

 ern literature or a Southern literature, an Eastern 

 or a Western school of art or science. Joel Chandler 

 Harris is emphatically a national writer ; so is Mark 



