80 TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH AMERICA t 
also tliat it may not be thought that this re* 
mark has been made, merely because the same 
deference and the same respectful attention, 
which we see so commonly paid by the lower 
orders of people in Great Britain and Ireland 
to those who are in a situation somewhat supe¬ 
rior to themselves, is not also paid in America 
to persons in the same station; it is the want of 
common civility I complain of, which it is al¬ 
ways desirable to behold between man and man, 
let their situations in life be what they may, and 
which is not contrary to the dictates of nature, 
or to the spirit of genuine liberty, as it is ob¬ 
servable in the behaviour of the wild Indians 
that wander through the forests of this vast 
continent, the most free and independent of all 
human beings. In the United States, however, 
the lower classes of people w ill return rude and 
impertinent answers to questions couched in 
the most civil terms, and will insult a person 
that bears the appearance of a gentleman, on 
purpose to show how much they consider them¬ 
selves upon an equality with him. Civility 
cannot be purchased from them on any terms ; 
they seem to think that it is incompatible with 
freedom, and that there is no other way of 
convincing a stranger that he is really in aland 
of liberty, but by being surly and ill mannered 
his presence. 
