Volume I Part 38 (1/2)

”Come in, Johnny,” says the father.

”I won't.”

”I tell you, come in directly, sir--do you hear?”

”I won't,” replies the urchin taking to his heels.

”A st.u.r.dy republican, sir,” says his father to me, smiling at the boy's resolute disobedience.

Be it recollected that I give this as one instance of a thousand which I witnessed during my sojourn in the country.

It may be inquired, how is it that such is the case at present, when the obedience to parents was so rigorously inculcated by the puritan fathers, that by the blue laws, the punishment of disobedience was _death_? Captain Hall ascribes it to the democracy, and the rights of equality therein acknowledged; but I think, allowing the spirit of their inst.i.tutions to have some effect in producing this evil, that the princ.i.p.al cause of it is the total neglect of the children by the father, and his absence in his professional pursuits, and the natural weakness of most mothers, when their children are left altogether to their care and guidance.

Mr Sanderson, in his Sketches of Paris, observes:--”The motherly virtues of our women, so eulogised by foreigners, is not ent.i.tled to unqualified praise. There is no country in which maternal care is so a.s.siduous; but also there is none in which examples of injudicious tenderness are so frequent.” This I believe to be true; not that the American women are really more injudicious than those of England, but because they are not supported as they should be by the authority of the father, of whom the child should always entertain a certain portion of fear mixed with affection, to counterbalance the indulgence accorded by natural yearnings of a mother's heart.

The self-will arising from this fundamental error manifests itself throughout the whole career of the American's existence, and, consequently, it is a self-willed nation _par excellence_.

At the age of six or seven you will hear both boys and girls contradicting their fathers and mothers, and advancing their own opinions with a firmness which is very striking.

At fourteen or fifteen the boys will seldom remain longer at school. At college, it is the same thing; (note 6) and they learn precisely what they please, and no more. Corporal punishment is not permitted; indeed, if we are to judge from an extract I took from an American paper, the case is reversed.

The following ”Rules” are posted up in New Jersey school-house:--

”No kissing girls in school-time; no _licking_ the _master_ during holy days.”

At fifteen or sixteen, if not at college, the boy a.s.sumes the man; he enters into business, as a clerk to some merchant, or in some store.

His father's home is abandoned, except when it may suit his convenience, his salary being sufficient for most of his wants. He frequents the bar, calls for gin c.o.c.ktails, chews tobacco, and talks politics. His theoretical education, whether he has profited much by it or not, is now superseded by a more practical one, in which he obtains a most rapid proficiency. I have no hesitation in a.s.serting that there is more practical knowledge among the Americans than among any other people under the sun. (note 7).

It is singular that in America, everything, whether it be of good of evil, appears to a.s.sist the country in _going a-head_. This very want of parental control, however it may affect the morals of the community, is certainly advantageous to America, as far as her rapid advancement is concerned. Boys are working like men for years before they would be in England; time is money, and they a.s.sist to bring in the harvest.

But does this independence on the part of the youth of America end here?

On the contrary, what at first was _independence_, a.s.sumes next the form of _opposition_, and eventually that of _control_.

The young men before they are qualified by age to claim their rights as citizens, have their societies, their book-clubs, their political meetings, their resolutions, all of which are promulgated in the newspapers; and very often the young men's societies are called upon by the newspapers to come forward with their opinions. Here is _opposition_. Mr Cooper says, on page 152 of his ”Democrat”:--

”The defects in American deportment are, notwithstanding, numerous and palpable. Among the first may be ranked, _insubordination in children_, and a great want of respect for age. The former vice may be ascribed to the business habits of the country, which leave so little time for parental instruction, and, perhaps, in some degree to the acts of political agents, who, with their own advantages in view, among the other expedients of their cunning, have resorted to the artifice of separating children from their natural advisers by calling meetings of the young to decide on the fortunes and policy of the country.”

But what is more remarkable, is the fact that society has been usurped by the young people, and the married and old people have been, to a certain degree, excluded from it. A young lady will give a ball, and ask none but young men and young women of her acquaintance; not a _chaperon_ is permitted to enter, and her father and mother are requested to stay upstairs, that they may not interfere with the amus.e.m.e.nt. This is constantly the case in Philadelphia and Baltimore, and I have heard bitter complaints made by the married people concerning it. Here is _control_. Mr Sanderson, in his ”Sketches of Paris,”

observes:--

”They who give a tone to society should have maturity of mind; they should have refinement of taste, which is a quality of age. As long as _college beaux and boarding-school misses_ take the lead, it must be an insipid society, in whatever community it may exist. Is it not villainous in your Quakers.h.i.+ps of Philadelphia, to lay us, before we have lived half our time out, upon the shelf! Some of the native tribes, more merciful, eat the old folks out of the way.”

However, retribution follows: in their turn they marry, and are ejected; they have children, and are disobeyed. The pangs which they have occasioned to their own parents are now suffered by them in return, through the conduct of their own children; and thus it goes on, and will go on, until the system is changed.

All this is undeniable; and thus it appears that the youth of America, being under no control, acquire just as much as they please, and no more, of what may be termed theoretical knowledge. Thus is the first great error in American education, for how many boys are there who will learn without coercion, in proportion to the number who will not?

Certainly not one in ten, and, therefore it may be a.s.sumed that not one in ten is properly instructed. [See note 6.]

Now, that the education of the youth of America is much injured by the want of control on the part of the parents, is easily established by the fact that in those states where the parental control is the greatest, as in Ma.s.sachusetts, the education is proportionably superior. But this great error is followed by consequences even more lamentable: it is the first dissolving power of the kindred attraction, so manifest throughout all American society. Beyond the period of infancy there is no endearment between the parents and children; none of that sweet spirit of affection between brother and sisters; none of those links which unite one family; of that mutual confidence; that rejoicing in each other's success; that refuge, when they are depressed or afflicted, in the bosoms of those who love us--the sweetest portion of human existence, which supports us wider, and encourages us firmly to brave, the ills of life--nothing of this exists. In short, there is hardly such a thing in America as ”Home, sweet home.” That there are exceptions to this, I grant but I speak of the great majority of cases, and the results upon the character of the nation. Mr Cooper, speaking of the weakness of the family tie in America, says--