VII 

 ANDREW JACKSON 



AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY SEVENTY YEARS AGO 



THE period comprised between the years 1815 and 

 1860 between our second war with England and our 

 great Civil War was the period in which American 

 society was more provincial in character than at any 

 time before or since. By provincialism I mean the 

 opposite of cosmopolitanism ; I refer to the state of 

 things in which the people of a community know very 

 little about other communities and care very little for 

 foreign ideas and foreign affairs. I do not mean to 

 imply that the community thus affected with provin- 

 cialism is necessarily backward in its civilization. Pro- 

 vincialism is, indeed, one of the marks of backwardness, 

 but it is a mark that is often found in the foremost 

 communities. No one doubts that England and France 

 stand in the front rank among civilized nations ; but 

 when a Frenchman in good society thinks that the 

 people of the United States talk Spanish, or when a 

 college-bred man in England imagines Indians in 

 feathers and war-paint prowling in the backwoods near 

 Boston, none can doubt that they are chargeable with 

 provincialism in a very gross form indeed. This sort 

 of dense ignorance is apt to underlie national antipa- 

 thies, and when manifested between the different parts 

 of a common country it is accountable for what we 



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