268 ANDREW JACKSON 



call sectional prejudice. Such antipathies are usually 

 ill founded. That human nature which we all possess 

 in common is very far from perfect, but after all it is 

 encouraging to find, as a general rule, that the better 

 we understand people the more we like them. If all 

 the bitterness, all the quarrels and bloodshed, that have 

 come from sheer downright ignorance were to be elimi- 

 nated from the annals of mankind, those annals would 

 greatly shrink in volume. It is, therefore, devoutly to 

 be wished that provincialism may by and by perish, 

 and every encouragement should be given to the 

 agencies which are gradually destroying it, such as 

 literature, commerce, and travel, enabling the people 

 of different countries to exchange ideas and learn 

 something about each other's characters. 



American provincialism sixty years ago, however, 

 had something about it that was wholesome. A great 

 many bad things have their good sides, and in looking 

 back upon evils that we have got rid of, we can some- 

 times see that they did something toward checking 

 other evils. An exceedingly foolish and barbarous 

 custom was duelling; but it doubtless served some- 

 what to restrain that graceless impudence which some- 

 times seems threatening in turn to become a national 

 misfortune. So with provincialism ; it had its good 

 side in so far as it was a reaction against the old colo- 

 nial spirit which kept our minds in thraldom to Eu- 

 rope, and especially to England, long after we had by 

 force of arms achieved political independence. Before 

 the Revolutionary War we were kept perpetually re- 

 minded of England. Most of the colonial governors 

 and revenue officers, and many of the judges, received 

 their appointments from London. Every change of 



