Men and Manners in America

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W. Blackwood and sons, 1843 - Social Science - 454 pages
The Scottish writer offers his perspective on America and its inhabitants. Apparently unapproving of a country lacking a royal family, he finds the Americans somewhat distressing but interesting.

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Page 294 - ... parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole ; where not local purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the general good resulting from the general reason of the whole : — you choose a member indeed ; but when you have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a member of parliament.
Page 293 - But authoritative instructions; mandates issued, which the member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for, though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and conscience, these are things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and which arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenor of our Constitution.
Page 293 - Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment ; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
Page 293 - My worthy colleague says, his will ought to be subservient to yours. If that be all, the thing is innocent. If government were a matter of will upon any side, yours, without question, ought to be superior. But government and legislation are matters of reason and judgment, and not of inclination ; and what sort of reason is that, in which the determination precedes the discussion ; in which one set of men deliberate, and another decide ; and where those who form the conclusion are perhaps three hundred...
Page 293 - But, his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you ; to any man, or to any set of men living.
Page 337 - The prevailing character of the Mississippi is that of solemn gloom. I have trodden the passes of Alp and Apennine, yet never felt how awful a thing is nature, till I was borne on its waters through regions desolate and uninhabitable. Day after day, and night after night, we continued driving right downward to the south ; our vessel, like some huge demon of the wilderness, bearing fire in her bosom, and canopying the eternal forest with the smoke of her nostrils.
Page 337 - The action of running water, in a vast alluvial plain like that of the basin of the Mississippi, without obstruction from rock or mountain, may be calculated with the utmost precision. Whenever the course of a river diverges in any degree from a right line, it is evident that the current can no longer act with equal force on both its banks.
Page 340 - One of the most striking circumstances connected with this river-voyage was the rapid change of climate. Barely ten days had elapsed since I was traversing mountains almost impassable from snow. Even the level country was partially covered with it, and the approach of spring had not been heralded by any symptom of vegetation. Yet, in a little more than a week, I found myself in the region of the sugar-canes.
Page 188 - Democracy was sold some years ago at public auction in New Orleans, and purchased by a society of gentlemen who wished to testify by her liberation their admiration of the statesman, who "Dreamt of freedom in a slave's embrace.
Page 125 - Senate consists of 12 members, who are chosen by the people in districts. The executive power is vested in a Governor and a Council, which consists of five members. The governor, council, senators, and representatives are all elected annually, by the people, on the second Tuesday in March ; and their term of service commences on the first Wednesday in June. The General Court meets annually (at Concord) on the first Wednesday in June. The right of suffrage is granted to every male inhabitant of...

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