226 ANTI-ENGLISH FEELING. [CHAP. XVI. 



of a second-rate power.&quot; Soon after this T met an English 

 sportsman, who had been traveling for his amusement in the 

 western states, where he had been well received, and liked the 

 people much, but many of them had told him, &quot; We must have 

 a brush with the English before they will respect us.&quot; 



This sentiment is strong with a certain party throughout the 

 Union, and would have no existence if they did not respect the 

 English, and wish in their hearts to have their good opinion. 

 It may be well for an old nation to propound the doctrine that 

 every people ought to rest on their own dignity, and be satisfied 

 with their place in the world without troubling themselves about 

 what others think of them, or running the risk of having applied 

 to them the character which Goldsmith ascribed to the French 

 of his times : 



&quot; Where the weak soul within itself unblest, 

 Leans for support upon another s breast.&quot; 



But they whose title to consideration is new, however real, will 

 rarely occupy their true place unless they take it ; whereas an 

 older nation has seldom to assert its claims, and they are often 

 freely conceded, long after it has declined from its former power. 

 To an ambitious nation, feeding its imagination with anticipations 

 of coming greatness, it is peculiarly mortifying to find that what 

 they have actually achieved is barely acknowledged. They grow 

 boastful and impatient to display their strength. When they 

 are in this mood, no foreign country should succumb to them ; 

 but, on the other hand, it is equally impolitic and culpable to 

 irritate them by disparagement, or by not yielding to them their 

 proper place among the nations. &quot; You class us,&quot; said one of 

 their politicians to me in Washington, &quot; with the South American 

 republics ; your embassadors to us come from Brazil and Mexico 

 to Washington, and consider it a step in their advancement to go 

 from the United States to Spain, or some second-rate German 

 court, having a smaller population than two of our large states. 

 Yet, in reality, where is there a people in the world, except 

 France, with which it so much concerns you to live in amity as 

 the United States, and with what other nation have you and 

 your chief colonies so much commercial intercourse ?&quot; 



