CHAP. VI.] WAR WITH ENGLAND. 81 



blood in their veins.&quot; I remarked, that I had always inferred 

 from the books of English travelers in the United States, that 

 domestic service was held as somewhat of a degradation in New 

 England. &quot; I remember the time,&quot; he answered, &quot; when such 

 an idea was never entertained by any one here ; but servants 

 formerly used to live with their master and mistress, and have 

 their meals at the same table. Of late years, the custom of 

 boarding separately has gained ground, and work in factories is 

 now preferred. These are so managed, that the daughters of 

 farmers, and sometimes of our ministers, look upon them as most 

 respectable places, where in three or four years they may earn a 

 small sum toward their dowry, or which may help to pay off a 

 mortgage or family debt.&quot; 



As, during our stay here, the tone of the newspapers from 

 Washington was somewhat bellicose, and we were proposing to 

 make a tour of eight months in the southern states, I asked my 

 legal companion whether he was really apprehensive of a war 

 about Oregon. &quot; No,&quot; he said, &quot; there may be big words and 

 much blustering, and perhaps, before the storm blows over, a 

 war panic ; but there will be no rupture with England, because 

 it is against the interest of the slave-owners ; for you know, I 

 presume, that we are governed by the South, and our southern 

 chivalrv will put their veto on a war of which they would have 

 to bear the brunt.&quot; &quot;If,&quot; said I, &quot; you are ruled by the slave- 

 owning states, you may thank yourselves for it, the numerical, 

 physical, intellectual, and moral power being on the side of the 

 free states. Why do you knock under to them ?&quot; &quot; You may 

 well ask that question,&quot; he replied ; &quot; and, as a foreigner, may 

 riot easily be made to comprehend the political thralldom in 

 which we, the majority of northerners, are still held, but which 

 can not, I think, last much longer. Hitherto the southern 

 planters have had more leisure to devote to politics than our 

 small farmers or merchants in the north. They are banded to 

 gether as one man in defense of what they call their property 

 and institutions. They have a high bearing, which, in Con 

 gress, often imposes on northern men much superior to them in 

 real talent, knowledge, and strength of character. They are 



D* 



