Cornfed Culture 243 



ther and farther west, they brought traces of a score of Euro- 

 pean cultures. The Norskies who drove their kubberulles into 

 the new lands of Wisconsin and Minnesota took with them 

 folk customs of Scandinavian origin. The Norwegians, Danes 

 and Swedes who came to this country were moved to emigrate 

 by no resentment against conditions at home. Their motive 

 was economical. They had therefore no urge to forget the 

 past, and for a generation they kept their folkways. But within 

 that space of time their persistence in these began to manifest 

 the fanaticism which is inevitably inspired by a cause known 

 to be already lost. The small grain cultures of Europe were 

 eventually blotted out by the corn. 



The earliest and most striking evidence that there is an 

 American culture is to be found in our national oratory. The 

 Gaelic gift for discourse which was part of the heritage of the 

 Scotch and Irish who came to the colonies during the seven- 

 teenth and early eighteenth centuries was prompt to assert 

 itself. Americans were quick to speak their minds. Even 

 quicker to speak their feelings. They protested and they ad- 

 jured. They exhorted and they preached. They testified at 

 religious revivals, and they confessed their sins with a rich- 

 ness of simile that an Old Testament prophet might have 

 envied. They led lengthily and rhapsodically in prayer. 

 Wherever two or three were gathered together one was sure 

 to make a speech. Though they spoke in English, they de- 

 veloped an American speech and an American style. The con- 

 trast between the speeches of Burke and of Patrick Henry, 

 born of the same racial stock and inspired by the same cause, 

 is the contrast between oats and corn. 



A generosity of phrase and of gesture marked the oratory 

 of Clay, Calhoun, of Thomas Benton who dreamed of a road 

 across Missouri to India, and of many of the politicians of the 

 Mississippi Valley, down to Bryan. These men sprang from 

 the cornfields. The corn was in their blood. Its largess bred 

 in them a corresponding generosity of emotional expression 

 which found an outlet and an appreciative audience at torch- 

 light processions, county elections, Fourth of July outings, 



