But Mr. Arnold has never seemed to me to be fortunate
in his judgment about Americans. He allows this quality of
distinction to Grant, but denies it, for all the world, to
Abraham Lincoln. The trouble with Mr. Arnold is that he
never travelled in the United States, when on this side the
Atlantic. He spent his time with a few friends who had little
love for things American. He visited a great city or two,
but never made himself acquainted with the American people.
He never knew the sources of our power, or the spirit of our
people.
Yet there is a good deal of truth in what he says of the
Americans of our time. It is still more true of the Englishmen
of our time. The newspaper, and the telegraph, and the telephone,
and the constant dissemination of news, the public library
and the common school and college mix up all together and
tend to make us, with some rare and delightful exceptions,
eminently commonplace. Certainly the men who are sent to
Congress do not escape this wearying quality. I know men
who have been in public office for more than a generation,
who have had enormous power and responsibility, to whom the
country is indebted for safety and happiness, who never said
a foolish thing, and rarely ever when they had the chance
failed to do a wise one, who are utterly commonplace.
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