RANDOM SKETCHES, FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A TRAVELLER IN THE UNITED STATES. No. VI. BALTIMORE. Ir not unfrequently happens, that an imaginary line of separation marks as complete a difference between the habits and characters of the inhabitants of two nations, or portions of a nation, as the widest ocean, or the most extensive intervening territory. Nowhere is this fact so evident as in the United States, where the line of demarcation between the northern and southern portions of the Union is in the highest degree imaginary, while nothing can be more dissimilar than the character and manners of the people. I have, in a previous paper, taken occasion to sketch, in a brief, and, I doubt not, imperfect manner, the personal characteristics of the Americans of the northern states; and to advert slightly to the most prominent traits of their character and manners. On approaching, however, the regions of the "sunny south," it will be necessary to begin again de novo, and retracing all our former steps, to enter upon the examination of a new people; a nation differing in almost every respect from those whom I have before described. It may be remembered, that I portrayed the northern American as thin, pallid, and sedate; cold in his feelings, and unimpassioned in his nature; and devoting all his energies to the acquirement of wealth, with but little regard to its future enjoyment. The southerner, however, possesses none of these characteristics, being generally well-made, ruddy, and warm-hearted; priding himself more on the happiness which his accumulated wealth enables him to afford his friends, than on the empty rank derived from its useless possession; and looking upon hospitality as the highest virtue of social existence; the duty, in fact, which man owes to man, for the promotion of the mutual enjoyment of life. By him, money seems to be regarded only as the means for the attainment of happiness; while his northern neighbour appears to consider it as the great end of life-the summum bonum of earthly felicity-the concentration of the highest degree of human enjoyment. As a merchant, we find him sometimes imprudent and reckless, but never stooping to fraud or dishonesty; occasionally rash, but never descending to deliberate deceit; while with the northerner we find the reverse too frequently the case. Which may be the more estimable character, I leave it to the judgment of my reader to decide. Among the ladies, the difference of appearance is even more strongly marked, and the superiority more evident than before. Graceful, animated, and vivacious, the belle of the southern and south-western states has none of the formal stiffness, the chilling coldness and heartlessness of the northerner: she approaches, in fact, much nearer to those whom my experience, such as it is, only leads me more strongly to regard as the highest models of female perfection. Much of that fastidious delicacy, which, springing inevitably from a corrupt mind, shrinks from anything which the utmost stretch of ingenuity could torture into a violation of decorum, is wanting in the character of the southern lady; and this alone would be sufficient to stamp her as far superior to her northern sister; but in every point of character this is still the case. for Much has been said, and, no doubt, correctly, of the corrupting and debasing influence of slavery in the natives of the southern portion of the United States; and conclusions very unfavourable to their domestic character have been thence deduced. Without pausing to comment on the manifest injustice of such a mode of determining national character, I should be acting unjustly were I not to rescue the fair fame of those to whom I owe so large a debt of gratitude, from the aspersions so unjustly cast upon it; that they are unjust, the statement of a few facts will readily show. Nothing can be more distant from my intention than in any degree to palliate the horrors of slavery; for no language can be too strong to express the abhorrence and detestation in which I must ever hold it: but I would endeavour, without defending the system, to exonerate those who live under it from some of the charges with which they have been unjustly assailed. I would observe, then, that in all those cases in which the slaves are under the immediate care and direction of their masters, as among the domestic servants, nothing can be more kind than the treatment which they almost invariably receive; nothing can involve less hardship than the nature of their service. To some, indeed, it may appear, that this kindness and consideration is often carried beyond the bounds of discretion, and practised to a ridiculous excess ; but this is immaterial: we require only to know that such indulgence does exist, and that to a very great extent. We find that it is only on the large estates, where the labourers are all placed under the rule of an overseer, that they are treated with any great degree of harshness or severity; and it is to this overseer, and not to their master, that they almost invariably owe the wrongs which they sustain. I well remember visiting, in company with some friends, a large estate in the interior of Georgia, which had recently changed hands, and which had not yet been visited by its new possessor. We entered through a gate, fast falling to decay, and advanced up an avenue of lofty and spreading elms, to the principal mansion, which bore in every part ample evidence of the tenure of service of those to whom was committed its care. The windows broken and dirty; the blinds rotting off their hinges; and the cracked and discoloured walls, all bore witness to the energy of slave labour, and the eager assiduity of slave service. In the rear of the house, we perceived a long row of white-washed log huts, neat, certainly, in appearance, though simple, and looking as if they might be the abodes of happiness and peace. Prompted by curiosity, I entered one of these, and the sight which then presented itself quickly drove from my mind all the visions of domestic felicity in which I had before indulged. There, on a low bench, by the side of a miserable and smoky fire, sat the father of the family, suffering at that moment from a swelling of the knee, produced by over-working and exposure in the damp and marshy ricegrounds. His wife was lying, lazy and lethargic, on the wretched bed; and his family were scattered around, indolently striving to lose in sleep the consciousness of their miseries; while others had contrived to lull their senses into oblivion by temporary intoxication. The miserable rags which scarcely covered their emaciated limbs were fast falling to decay, and everything around them bore the marks of wretchedness and destitution. The young children were huddled together in the corner with the pigs, who seemed, if not their equals in intelligence, at least their superiors in happiness; for while the one would soon end, by an easy death, a life of lethargy and sloth, the other was compelled to drag out a miserable existence, toiling for others, and marked out as a contaminating and degraded object by those who owe to them that wealth which gives them the power to domineer and control. The tale told by these poor wretches was piteous in the extreme, and gave a sad picture of distress and oppression. The overseer, heartless and selfish, as these inen almost invariably are, stinted and starved the miserable slaves, to add to his own peculations: and one could not wonder, on hearing the relation, at the insurrections which so frequently take place. In these, unfortunately, the innocent suffer with the guilty, and the innocent family of the planter are murdered for the fault of the servant: yet this is one of the inevitable evils of a slave-holding system. In the society of Baltimore, there is much more of the ease and elegance of European circles than in that of any other city of the United States; for in the states farther south, though the people are there very agreeable, yet there is a want of the elegance and refinement of Baltimore, which seems to form the happy medium between the two extremes of American social life. Even those who come from the other parts of the Union to reside there, seem to be influenced by the atmosphere of the place, and to assimilate with the general character of society. Nothing strikes a foreigner who has been travelling for some time in the northern states, more than the animation and life of a Baltimoren circle, as compared with the frigidity and formality of a northern party. There, all is stiffness and restraint; or if any conversation be started, it is vapid and frivolous in character, and rarely sustained for any length of time; all seeming to fly to the dance, as the only refuge from tedium and ennui. But in Baltimore, this resource is never wanted, for the minds of all seem so well stored that no subject comes amiss; and the conversation of the ladies, instead of being confined to the weather, the theatres, and the frivolities of life, takes a wider and more English range, and often assumes the most interesting character. Which society is the more agreeable-which gives the most lasting delight, and affords the most pleasing recollectionsit would be needless to say; but this I may aver, that the hours I have spent in the society of my Baltimoren friends will ever be remembered by me as among the happiest of my life. Let it be remembered, that nothing which I have said before on the character of the American people can be considered as applying, in any degree, to those who are now to come under our consideration. For the future, I shall confine my remarks to the southern states; a field of extreme interest, and one which has been hitherto but little explored by the traveller, but which affords no slight material for our research. Leaving the cold, the formal, and the unromantic north, I shall confine my wanderings to the sunny regions of the warm and poetical south, where the hearts of all beat warm with reciprocal kindness and hospitality, and where the social refinements and elegances of life are not considered of such slight importance as to be unworthy the attention and care of men. We shall find, doubtless, as we proceed, much to reprehend in the character of the people; but we shall also discover that these vices are in most cases but exaggerated virtues-sentiments which in themselves are excellent, but which, when carried to excess, become mischievous and dangerous in their effect. The chivalrous feelings which most particularly distinguish the southerner, are worthy of our highest admiration and esteem; but when carried to such lengths as we often find the case among them, they become dangerous to society, and injurious to the individual himself. But this belongs rather to the far south, and may be touched on in a future paper. Δ. SMILE YET. SMILE yet, dear love, as thou hast smiled, Of olden time, on me, When free, Too young for love, I, gay and wild, Poured the affection of a child Fondly on thee. Smile as when once thou couldst bestow, E'en on the thoughtless boy, Such joy With thy sweet smile, as angels know From beams of endless love to flow Thou smiledst on the youthful friend Of earthly bliss he knew alone depend Smile yet, when I have told my love; Oh, smile thou, dearest, yet; Oh, let This rapture last; let Love's entreaty move Thy gentle breast!-My heart is scanned above; "Tis thine :-smile yet! HAD. |