Broadway, the street of New York with which the world is generally best acquainted, begins at the southern point of the town and goes northward through it. For some two miles and a half it walks away in a straight line, and then it turns to the left towards the Hudson, and becomes in fact a continuation of another street called the Bowery, which comes up in a devious course from the south-east extremity of the island. From that time Broadway never again takes a straight course, but crosses the various Avenues in an oblique direction till it becomes the Bloomingdale road, and under that name takes itself out of town. There are eleven so-called Avenues, which descend in absolutely straight lines from the northern, and at present unsettled, extremity of the new town, making their way southward till they lose themselves among the old streets. These are called First Avenue, Second Avenue, and so on. The town had already progressed two miles up northwards from the Battery before it had caught the parallelogrammic fever from Philadelphia, for at about that distance we find "First Street." First Street runs across the Avenues from water to water, and then Second Street. I will not name them all, seeing that they go up to 154th Street! They do so at least on the map, and I believe on the lamp-posts. But the houses are not yet built in order beyond 50th or 60th Street. The other hundred streets, each of two miles long, with the Avenues which are mostly unoccupied for four or five miles, is the ground over which the young New Yorkers are to spread themselves. I do not in the least doubt that they will occupy it all, and that 154th Street will find itself too narrow a boundary for the population.
I have said that there was some good architectural effect in New York, and I alluded chiefly to that of the Fifth Avenue. The Fifth Avenue is the Belgrave Square, the Park Lane, and the Pall Mall of New York. It is certainly a very fine street. The houses in it are magnificent, not having that aristocratic look which some of our detached London residences enjoy, or the palatial appearance of an old-fashioned hotel in Paris, but an air of comfortable luxury and commercial wealth which is not excelled by the best houses of any other town that I know. They are houses, not hotels or palaces; but they are very roomy houses, with every luxury that complete finish can give them. Many of them cover large s.p.a.ces of ground, and their rent will sometimes go up as high as 800 and 1000 a year. Generally the best of these houses are owned by those who live in them, and rent is not therefore paid. But this is not always the case, and the sums named above may be taken as expressing their value. In England a man should have a very large income indeed who could afford to pay 1000 a year for his house in London. Such a one would as a matter of course have an establishment in the country, and be an Earl or a Duke or a millionaire. But it is different in New York. The resident there shows his wealth chiefly by his house, and though he may probably have a villa at Newport or a box somewhere up the Hudson he has no second establishment. Such a house therefore will not represent a total expenditure of above 4,000 a year.
There are churches on each side of Fifth Avenue,--perhaps five or six within sight at one time,--which add much to the beauty of the street. They are well-built, and in fairly good taste. These, added to the general well-being and splendid comfort of the place, give it an effect better than the architecture of the individual houses would seem to warrant. I own that I have enjoyed the vista as I have walked up and down Fifth Avenue, and have felt that the city had a right to be proud of its wealth. But the greatness and beauty and glory of wealth have on such occasions been all in all with me. I know no great man, no celebrated statesman, no philanthropist of peculiar note who has lived in Fifth Avenue. That gentleman on the right made a million of dollars by inventing a shirt-collar; this one on the left electrified the world by a lotion; as to the gentleman at the corner there,--there are rumours about him and the Cuban slave-trade; but my informant by no means knows that they are true. Such are the aristocracy of Fifth Avenue. I can only say that if I could make a million dollars by a lotion, I should certainly be right to live in such a house as one of those.
The suburbs of New York are, by the nature of the localities, divided from the city by water. New Jersey and Hoboken are on the other side of the Hudson, and in another State. Williamsburgh and Brooklyn are in Long Island, which is a part of the State of New York. But these places are as easily reached as Lambeth is reached from Westminster.
Steam ferries ply every three or four minutes, and into these boats coaches, carts, and waggons of any size or weight are driven. In fact they make no other stoppage to the commerce than that occasioned by the payment of a few cents. Such payment no doubt is a stoppage, and therefore it is that New Jersey, Brooklyn, and Williamsburgh are, at any rate in appearance, very dull and uninviting. They are, however, very populous. Many of the quieter citizens prefer to live there; and I am told that the Brooklyn tea-parties consider themselves to be, in aesthetic feeling, very much ahead of anything of the kind in the more opulent centres of the city. In beauty of scenery Staten Island is very much the prettiest of the suburbs of New York. The view from the hill side in Staten Island down upon New York harbour is very lovely.
It is the only really good view of that magnificent harbour which I have been able to find. As for appreciating such beauty when one is entering a port from sea, or leaving it for sea, I do not believe in any such power. The ship creeps up or creeps out while the mind is engaged on other matters. The pa.s.senger is uneasy either with hopes or fears; and then the grease of the engines offends one"s nostrils.
But it is worth the tourist"s while to look down upon New York harbour from the hill side in Staten Island. When I was there Fort Lafayette looked black in the centre of the channel, and we knew that it was crowded with the victims of secession. Fort Tomkins was being built, to guard the pa.s.s,--worthy of a name of richer sound; and Fort something else was bristling with new cannon. Fort Hamilton, on Long Island, opposite, was frowning at us; and immediately around us a regiment of volunteers was receiving regimental stocks and boots from the hands of its officers. Everything was bristling with war; and one could not but think that not in this way had New York raised herself so quickly to her present greatness.
But the glory of New York is the Central Park;--its glory in the mind of all New Yorkers of the present day. The first question asked of you is whether you have seen the Central Park, and the second is as to what you think of it. It does not do to say simply that it is fine, grand, beautiful, and miraculous. You must swear by c.o.c.k and pie that it is more fine, more grand, more beautiful, more miraculous than anything else of the kind anywhere. Here you encounter, in its most annoying form, that necessity for eulogium which presses you everywhere. For, in truth, taken as it is at present, the Central Park is not fine, nor grand, nor beautiful. As to the miracle, let that pa.s.s. It is perhaps as miraculous as some other great latter-day miracles.
But the Central Park is a very great fact, and affords a strong additional proof of the sense and energy of the people. It is very large, being over three miles long, and about three quarters of a mile in breadth. When it was found that New York was extending itself, and becoming one of the largest cities of the world, a s.p.a.ce was selected between Fifth and Seventh Avenues, immediately outside the limits of the city as then built, but nearly in the centre of the city as it is intended to be built. The ground around it became at once of great value; and I do not doubt that the present fashion of the Fifth Avenue about Twentieth Street will in course of time move itself up to the Fifth Avenue as it looks, or will look, over the Park at Seventieth, Eightieth, and Ninetieth Streets. The great waterworks of the city bring the Croton River, whence New York is supplied, by an aqueduct over the Haarlem river into an enormous reservoir just above the Park; and hence it has come to pa.s.s that there will be water not only for sanitary and useful purposes, but also for ornament. At present the Park, to English eyes, seems to be all road. The trees are not grown up, and the new embankments, and new lakes, and new ditches, and new paths give to the place anything but a picturesque appearance. The Central Park is good for what it will be, rather than for what it is. The summer heat is so very great that I doubt much whether the people of New York will ever enjoy such verdure as our parks show. But there will be a pleasant a.s.semblage of walks and water-works, with fresh air, and fine shrubs and flowers, immediately within the reach of the citizens. All that art and energy can do will be done, and the Central Park doubtless will become one of the great glories of New York. When I was expected to declare that St. James"s Park, Green Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens, altogether, were nothing to it, I confess that I could only remain mute.
Those who desire to learn what are the secrets of society in New York, I would refer to the Potiphar Papers. The Potiphar Papers are perhaps not as well known in England as they deserve to be. They were published, I think, as much as seven or eight years ago; but are probably as true now as they were then. What I saw of society in New York was quiet and pleasant enough; but doubtless I did not climb into that circle in which Mrs. Potiphar held so distinguished a position. It may be true that gentlemen habitually throw fragments of their supper and remnants of their wine on to their host"s carpets; but if so I did not see it.
As I progress in my work I feel that duty will call upon me to write a separate chapter on hotels in general, and I will not, therefore, here say much about those in New York. I am inclined to think that few towns in the world, if any, afford on the whole better accommodation, but there are many in which the accommodation is cheaper. Of the railways also I ought to say something. The fact respecting them which is most remarkable is that of their being continued into the centre of the town through the streets. The cars are not dragged through the city by locomotive engines, but by horses; the pace therefore is slow, but the convenience to travellers in being brought nearer to the centre of trade must be much felt. It is as though pa.s.sengers from Liverpool and pa.s.sengers from Bristol were carried on from Euston Square and Paddington along the New Road, Portland Place, and Regent Street to Pall Mall, or up the City Road to the Bank. As a general rule, however, the railways, railway cars, and all about them are ill-managed. They are monopolies, and the public, through the press, has no restraining power upon them as it has in England. A parcel sent by express over a distance of forty miles will not be delivered within twenty-four hours. I once made my plaint on this subject at the bar or office of an hotel, and was told that no remonstrance was of avail. "It is a monopoly," the man told me, "and if we say anything, we are told that if we do not like it we need not use it." In railway matters and postal matters time and punctuality are not valued in the States as they are with us, and the public seem to acknowledge that they must put up with defects,--that they must grin and bear them in America, as the public no doubt do in Austria where such affairs are managed by a government bureau.
In the beginning of this chapter I spoke of the population of New York, and I cannot end it without remarking that out of that population more than one-eighth is composed of Germans. It is, I believe, computed that there are about 120,000 Germans in the city, and that only two other German cities in the world, Vienna and Berlin, have a larger German population than New York. The Germans are good citizens and thriving men, and are to be found prospering all over the northern and western parts of the Union. It seems that they are excellently well adapted to colonization, though they have in no instance become the dominant people in a colony, or carried with them their own language or their own laws. The French have done so in Algeria, in some of the West India islands, and quite as essentially into Lower Canada, where their language and laws still prevail. And yet it is, I think, beyond doubt that the French are not good colonists, as are the Germans.
Of the ultimate destiny of New York as one of the ruling commercial cities of the world, it is, I think, impossible to doubt. Whether or no it will ever equal London in population I will not pretend to say.
Even should it do so, should its numbers so increase as to enable it to say that it had done so, the question could not very well be settled. When it comes to pa.s.s that an a.s.semblage of men in one so-called city have to be counted by millions, there arises the impossibility of defining the limits of that city, and of saying who belong to it and who do not. An arbitrary line may be drawn, but that arbitrary line, though perhaps false when drawn as including too much, soon becomes more false as including too little. Ealing, Acton, Fulham, Putney, Norwood, Sydenham, Blackheath, Woolwich, Greenwich, Stratford, Highgate, and Hampstead, are, in truth, component parts of London, and very shortly Brighton will be as much so.
CHAPTER XV.
THE CONSt.i.tUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
As New York is the most populous State of the Union, having the largest representation in Congress,--on which account it has been called the Empire State,--I propose to mention, as shortly as may be, the nature of its separate Const.i.tution as a State. Of course it will be understood that the const.i.tutions of the different States are by no means the same. They have been arranged according to the judgment of the different people concerned, and have been altered from time to time to suit such altered judgment. But as the States together form one nation, and on such matters as foreign affairs, war, customs, and post-office regulations, are bound together as much as are the English counties, it is, of course, necessary that the const.i.tution of each should in most matters a.s.similate itself to those of the others. These const.i.tutions are very much alike. A Governor, with two houses of legislature, generally called the Senate and the House of Representatives, exists in each State. In the State of New York the lower house is called the a.s.sembly. In most States the Governor is elected annually; but in some States for two years, as in New York. In Pennsylvania he is elected for three years. The House of Representatives or the a.s.sembly is, I think, always elected for one session only; but as, in many of the States, the Legislature only sits once in two years, the election recurs of course at the same interval. The franchise in all the States is nearly universal, but in no State is it perfectly so. The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and other officers are elected by vote of the people as well as the members of the Legislature. Of course it will be understood that each State makes laws for itself,--that they are in nowise dependent on the Congress a.s.sembled at Washington for their laws,--unless for laws which refer to matters between the United States as a nation and other nations, or between one State and another. Each State declares with what punishment crimes shall be visited; what taxes shall be levied for the use of the State; what laws shall be pa.s.sed as to education; what shall be the State judiciary. With reference to the judiciary, however, it must be understood, that the United States as a nation have separate national law courts before which come all cases litigated between State and State, and all cases which do not belong in every respect to any one individual State. In a subsequent chapter I will endeavour to explain this more fully. In endeavouring to understand the const.i.tution of the United States it is essentially necessary that we should remember that we have always to deal with two different political arrangements,--that which refers to the nation as a whole, and that which belongs to each State as a separate governing power in itself. What is law in one State is not law in another. Nevertheless there is a very great likeness throughout these various const.i.tutions; and any political student who shall have thoroughly mastered one, will not have much to learn in mastering the others.
This State, now called New York, was first settled by the Dutch in 1614, on Manhattan Island. They established a government in 1629, under the name of the New Netherlands. In 1664 Charles II. granted the province to his brother, James II., then Duke of York, and possession was taken of the country on his behalf by one Colonel Nichols. In 1673 it was recaptured by the Dutch, but they could not hold it, and the Duke of York again took possession by patent. A legislative body was first a.s.sembled during the reign of Charles II., in 1683; from which it will be seen that parliamentary representation was introduced into the American colonies at a very early date. The declaration of independence was made by the revolted colonies in 1776, and in 1777 the first const.i.tution was adopted by the State of New York. In 1822 this was changed for another; and the one of which I now purport to state some of the details was brought into action in 1847. In this const.i.tution there is a provision that it shall be overhauled and remodelled, if needs be, once in twenty years.
Article XIII. Sec. 2.--"At the general election to be held in 1866, and in each twentieth year thereafter, the question, "Shall there be a convention to revise the Const.i.tution and amend the same?"
shall be decided by the electors qualified to vote for members of the Legislature." So that the New Yorkers cannot be twitted with the presumption of finality in reference to their legislative arrangements.
The present const.i.tution begins with declaring the inviolability of trial by jury and of habeas corpus,--"unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require its suspension."
It does not say by whom it may be suspended, or who is to judge of the public safety, but, at any rate, it may be presumed that such suspension was supposed to come from the powers of the State which enacted the law. At the present moment the habeas corpus is suspended in New York, and this suspension has proceeded not from the powers of the State, but from the Federal Government, without the sanction even of the Federal Congress.
"Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and no law shall be pa.s.sed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press." Art. I. Sec. 8. But at the present moment liberty of speech and of the press is utterly abrogated in the State of New York, as it is in other States. I mention this not as a reproach against either the State or the Federal Government, but to show how vain all laws are for the protection of such rights. If they be not protected by the feelings of the people,--if the people are at any time, or from any cause, willing to abandon such privileges, no written laws will preserve them.
In Art. I. Sec. 14, there is a proviso that no land--land, that is, used for agricultural purposes--shall be let on lease for a longer period than twelve years. "No lease or grant of agricultural land for a longer period than twelve years hereafter made, in which shall be reserved any rent or service of any kind, shall be valid." I do not understand the intended virtue of this proviso, but it shows very clearly how different are the practices with reference to land in England and America. Farmers in the States almost always are the owners of the land which they farm, and such tenures as those, by which the occupiers of land generally hold their farms with us, are almost unknown. There is no such relation as that of landlord and tenant as regards agricultural holdings.
Every male citizen of New York may vote who is twenty-one, who has been a citizen for ten days, who has lived in the State for a year, and for four months in the county in which he votes. He can vote for all "officers that now are, or hereafter may be, elective by the people." Art. II. Sec. 1. "But," the section goes on to say, "no man of colour, unless he shall have been for three years a citizen of the State, and for one year next preceding any election shall have been possessed of a freehold estate of the value of 250 dollars (50), and shall have been actually rated, and paid a tax thereon, shall be ent.i.tled to vote at such election." This is the only embargo with which universal suffrage is laden in the State of New York.
The third article provides for the election of the Senate and the a.s.sembly. The Senate consists of thirty-two members. And it may here be remarked that large as is the State of New York, and great as is its population, its Senate is less numerous than that of many other States. In Ma.s.sachusetts, for instance, there are forty senators, though the population of Ma.s.sachusetts is barely one third that of New York. In Virginia there are fifty senators, whereas the free population is not one third of that of New York. As a consequence the Senate of New York is said to be filled with men of a higher cla.s.s than are generally found in the Senates of other States. Then follows in the article a list of the districts which are to return the Senators. These districts consist of one, two, three, or in one case four counties, according to the population.
The article does not give the number of members of the Lower House, nor does it even state what amount of population shall be held as ent.i.tled to a member. It merely provides for the division of the State into districts which shall contain an equal number, not of population, but of voters. The House of a.s.sembly does consist of 128 members.
It is then stipulated that every member of both houses shall receive three dollars a day, or twelve shillings, for their services during the sitting of the legislature; but this sum is never to exceed 300 dollars, or sixty pounds in one year, unless an extra Session be called. There is also an allowance for the travelling expenses of members. It is, I presume, generally known that the members of the Congress at Washington are all paid, and that the same is the case with reference to the legislatures of all the States.
No member of the New York legislature can also be a member of the Washington Congress, or hold any civil or military office under the general States Government.
A majority of each House must be present, or as the article says, "shall const.i.tute a quorum to do business." Each House is to keep a journal of its proceedings. The doors are to be open,--except when the public welfare shall require secresy. A singular proviso this in a country boasting so much of freedom! For no speech or debate in either House shall the legislature be called in question in any other place. The legislature a.s.sembles on the first Tuesday in January, and sits for about three months. Its seat is at Albany.
The executive power, (Art. IV.) is to be vested in a Governor and a Lieutenant-Governor, both of whom shall be chosen for two years. The Governor must be a citizen of the United States, must be thirty years of age, and have lived for the last four years in the State. He is to be commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces of the State,--as is the President of those of the Union. I see that this is also the case in inland States, which one would say can have no navies. And with reference to some States it is enacted that the Governor is commander-in-chief of the army, navy, and militia, showing that some army over and beyond the militia may be kept by the State. In Tennessee, which is an inland State, it is enacted that the Governor shall be "commander-in-chief of the army and navy of this State, and of the militia, except when they shall be called into the service of the United States." In Ohio the same is the case, except that there is no mention of militia. In New York there is no proviso with reference to the service of the United States. I mention this as it bears with some strength on the question of the right of secession, and indicates the jealousy of the individual States with reference to the Federal Government. The Governor can convene extra Sessions of one House or of both. He makes a message to the legislature when it meets,--a sort of Queen"s speech; and he receives for his services a compensation, to be established by law. In New York this amounts to 800 a year. In some States this is as low as 200 and 300. In Virginia it is 1000. In California 1200.
The Governor can pardon, except in cases of treason. He has also a veto upon all bills sent up by the legislature. If he exercise this veto he returns the bill to the legislature with his reasons for so doing. If the bill on reconsideration by the Houses be again pa.s.sed by a majority of two thirds in each House, it becomes law in spite of the Governor"s veto. The veto of the President at Washington is of the same nature. Such are the powers of the Governor. But though they are very full, the Governor of each State does not practically exercise any great political power, nor is he, even politically, a great man. You might live in a State during the whole term of his government and hardly hear of him. There is vested in him by the language of the const.i.tution a much wider power than that intrusted to the Governors of our colonies. But in our colonies everybody talks, and thinks, and knows about the Governor. As far as the limits of the colony the Governor is a great man. But this is not the case with reference to the Governors in the different States.
The next article provides that the Governor"s ministers, viz., the Secretary of State, the Comptroller, Treasurer, and Attorney-General, shall be chosen every two years at a general election. In this respect the State const.i.tution differs from that of the national const.i.tution. The President at Washington names his own ministers,--subject to the approbation of the Senate. He makes many other appointments with the same limitation. As regards these nominations in general, the Senate, I believe, is not slow to interfere; but with reference to the ministers it is understood that the names sent in by the President shall stand. Of the Secretary of State, Comptroller, &c., belonging to the different States, and who are elected by the people, in a general way one never hears. No doubt they attend their offices and take their pay, but they are not political personages.
The next article, No. VI., refers to the Judiciary, and is very complicated. After considerable study I have failed to understand it.
The judges are elected by vote, and remain in office for, I believe, a term of eight years. In Sect. 20 of this article it is provided that--"No judicial officer, except Justices of the Peace, shall receive to his own use any fees or perquisites of office." How pleasantly this enactment must sound in the ears of the justices of the peace.
Article VII. refers to fiscal matters, and is more especially interesting as showing how greatly the State of New York has depended on its ca.n.a.ls for its wealth. These ca.n.a.ls are the property of the State; and by this article it seems to be provided that they shall not only maintain themselves, but maintain to a considerable extent the State expenditure also, and stand in lieu of taxation. It is provided, Section 6, that the "legislature shall not sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of any of the ca.n.a.ls of the State; but that they shall remain the property of the State, and under its management for ever." But in spite of its ca.n.a.ls the State does not seem to be doing very well, for I see that in 1860, its income was 4,780,000 dollars, and its expenditure 5,100,000, whereas its debt was 32,500,000 dollars. Of all the States, Pennsylvania is the most indebted, Virginia is the second on the list, and New York the third. New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, Delaware, and Texas, owe no State debts. All the other State ships have taken in ballast.
The militia is supposed to consist of all men capable of bearing arms, under forty-five years of age. But no one need be enrolled, who from scruples of conscience is averse to bearing arms. At the present moment such scruples do not seem to be very general. Then follows, in Article XI., a detailed enactment as to the choosing of militia officers. It may be perhaps sufficient to say that the privates are to choose the captains and the subalterns; the captains and subalterns are to choose the field officers; and the field officers the brigadier-generals and inspectors of brigade. The Governor, however, with the consent of the Senate shall nominate all major-generals. Now that real soldiers have unfortunately become necessary the above plan has not been found to work well.
Such is the Const.i.tution of the State of New York, which has been intended to work and does work quite separately from that of the United States. It will be seen that the purport has been to make it as widely democratic as possible,--to provide that all power of all description shall come directly from the people, and that such power shall return to the people at short intervals. The Senate and the Governor each remain for two years, but not for the same two years.
If a new Senate commence its work in 1861, a new Governor will come in in 1862. But, nevertheless, there is in the form of Government as thus established an absence of that close and immediate responsibility which attends our ministers. When a man has been voted in, it seems that responsibility is over for the period of the required service. He has been chosen, and the country which has chosen him is to trust that he will do his best. I do not know that this matters much with reference to the legislature or governments of the different States, for their State legislatures and governments are but puny powers; but in the legislature and government at Washington it does matter very much. But I shall have another opportunity of speaking on that subject.
Nothing has struck me so much in America as the fact that these State legislatures are puny powers. The absence of any tidings whatever of their doings across the water is a proof of this. Who has heard of the legislature of New York or of Ma.s.sachusetts? It is boasted here that their insignificance is a sign of the well-being of the people;--that the smallness of the power necessary for carrying on the machine shows how beautifully the machine is organised, and how well it works. "It is better to have little governors than great governors," an American said to me once. "It is our glory that we know how to live without having great men over us to rule us." That glory, if ever it were a glory, has come to an end. It seems to me that all these troubles have come upon the States because they have not placed high men in high places. The less of laws and the less of control the better, providing a people can go right with few laws and little control. One may say that no laws and no control would be best of all,--provided that none were needed. But this is not exactly the position of the American people.
The two professions of law-making and of governing have become unfashionable, low in estimation, and of no repute in the States.
The munic.i.p.al powers of the cities have not fallen into the hands of the leading men. The word politician has come to bear the meaning of political adventurer and almost of political blackleg. If A calls B a politician A intends to vilify B by so calling him. Whether or no the best citizens of a State will ever be induced to serve in the State legislature by a n.o.bler consideration than that of pay, or by a higher tone of political morals than that now existing, I cannot say.
It seems to me that some great decrease in the numbers of the State legislators should be a first step towards such a consummation. There are not many men in each State who can afford to give up two or three months of the year to the State service for nothing; but it may be presumed that in each State there are a few. Those who are induced to devote their time by the payment of 60, can hardly be the men most fitted for the purpose of legislation. It certainly has seemed to me that the members of the State legislatures and of the State governments are not held in that respect and treated with that confidence to which, in the eyes of an Englishman, such functionaries should be held as ent.i.tled.
CHAPTER XVI.
BOSTON.
From New York we returned to Boston by Hartford, the capital, or one of the capitals of Connecticut. This proud little State is composed of two old provinces, of which Hartford and Newhaven were the two metropolitan towns. Indeed there was a third colony called Saybrook, which was joined to Hartford. As neither of the two could of course give way when Hartford and Newhaven were made into one, the houses of legislature and the seat of government are changed about, year by year. Connecticut is a very proud little State, and has a pleasant legend of its own stanchness in the old colonial days. In 1662 the colonies were united, and a charter was given to them by Charles II.
But some years later, in 1686, when the bad days of James II. had come, this charter was considered to be too liberal, and order was given that it should be suspended. One Sir Edmund Andross had been appointed governor of all New England, and sent word from Boston to Connecticut that the charter itself should be given up to him. This the men of Connecticut refused to do. Whereupon Sir Edmund with a military following presented himself at their a.s.sembly, declared their governing powers to be dissolved, and after much palaver caused the charter itself to be laid upon the table before him. The discussion had been long, having lasted through the day into the night, and the room had been lighted with candles. On a sudden each light disappeared, and Sir Edmund with his followers were in the dark. As a matter of course, when the light was restored the charter was gone, and Sir Edmund, the governor-general, was baffled, as all governors-general and all Sir Edmunds always are in such cases. The charter was gone, a gallant Captain Wadsworth having carried it off and hidden it in an oak tree. The charter was renewed when William III. came to the throne, and now hangs triumphantly in the State House at Hartford. The charter oak has, alas! succ.u.mbed to the weather, but was standing a few years since. The men of Hartford are very proud of their charter, and regard it as the parent of their existing liberties quite as much as though no national revolution of their own had intervened.
And indeed the Northern States of the Union, especially those of New England, refer all their liberties to the old charters which they held from the mother-country. They rebelled, as they themselves would seem to say, and set themselves up as a separate people, not because the mother-country had refused to them by law sufficient liberty and sufficient self-control, but because the mother-country infringed the liberties and powers of self-control which she herself had given. The mother-country, so these States declare, had acted the part of Sir Edmund Andross, had endeavoured to take away their charters. So they also put out the lights, and took themselves to an oak tree of their own,--which is still standing, though winds from the infernal regions are now battering its branches. Long may it stand!
Whether the mother-country did or did not infringe the charters she had given, I will not here inquire. As to the nature of those alleged infringements, are they not written down to the number of twenty-seven in the Declaration of Independence? I have taken the liberty of appending this Declaration to the end of my book, and the twenty-seven paragraphs may all be seen. They mostly begin with He.
"He" has done this, and "He" has done that. The "He" is poor George III., whose twenty-seven mortal sins against his transatlantic colonies are thus recapitulated. It would avail nothing to argue now whether those deeds were sins or virtues; nor would it have availed then. The child had grown up and was strong, and chose to go alone into the world. The young bird was fledged, and flew away. Poor George III. with his cackling was certainly not efficacious in restraining such a flight. But it is gratifying to see how this new people, when they had it in their power to change all their laws, to throw themselves upon any Utopian theory that the folly of a wild philanthropy could devise, to discard as abominable every vestige of English rule and English power,--it is gratifying to see that when they could have done all this, they did not do so, but preferred to cling to things English. Their old colonial limits were still to be the borders of their States. Their old charters were still to be regarded as the sources from whence their State powers had come.
The old laws were to remain in force. The precedents of the English courts were to be held as legal precedents in the courts of the new nation,--and are now so held. It was still to be England,--but England without a King making his last struggle for political power.
This was the idea of the people, and this was their feeling; and that idea has been carried out, and that feeling has remained.
In the const.i.tution of the State of New York nothing is said about the religion of the people. It was regarded as a subject with which the const.i.tution had no concern whatever. But as soon as we come among the stricter people of New England we find that the const.i.tution-makers have not been able absolutely to ignore the subject. In Connecticut it is enjoined that as it is the duty of all men to worship the Supreme Being, and their right to render that worship in the mode most consistent with their consciences, no person shall be by law compelled to join or be cla.s.sed with any religious a.s.sociation. The line of argument is hardly logical, the conclusion not being in accordance with, or hanging on the first of the two premises. But nevertheless the meaning is clear. In a free country no man shall be made to worship after any special fashion; but it is decreed by the const.i.tution that every man is bound by duty to worship after some fashion. The article then goes on to say how they who do worship are to be taxed for the support of their peculiar church. I am not quite clear whether the New Yorkers have not managed this difficulty with greater success. When we come to the old Bay State,--to Ma.s.sachusetts,--we find the Christian religion spoken of in the Const.i.tution as that which in some one of its forms should receive the adherence of every good citizen.
Hartford is a pleasant little town, with English-looking houses, and an English-looking country around it. Here, as everywhere through the States, one is struck by the size and comfort of the residences. I sojourned there at the house of a friend, and could find no limit to the number of s.p.a.cious sitting-rooms which it contained. The modest dining-room and drawing-room which suffice with us for men of seven or eight hundred a year would be regarded as very mean accommodation by persons of similar incomes in the States.