Beacon of Freedom: The Impact of American Democracy upon Great Britain, 183-187 9781512817683

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The Impact of American Democracy upon Great Britain 1830-1870

Copyright 1955 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Manufactured

in the United

States of

PRESS America

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 54-11541

To that fine teacher, devoted scholar, and loyal friend, MERLE CURTI OF WISCONSIN

P r e f a t o r y Comments How steadying it would be to be able to say that this study marks the culmination of a boyhood pledge, or of a fierce and long-standing determination to blast out new trails over the horizon of knowledge. Or at least that the idea came to me in a dream. But alas, none of this is so. Merle Curti simply suggested to me one year that a stretch in Europe might well prove enlightening. While being enlightened, I gathered the material for this book. Hence, though I have an affection for this work, I am not likely to consider it as world-shaking in its significance as I might under other conditions. This is not to say that I don't believe it to be of importance. I do, or I wouldn't have sweated over it as much as I have. But I hardly expect cabinets to fall or American historiography to march off in another direction as soon as this book appears. I make no claim to initiating study in the field of American influence abroad. A number of books and articles exploring various aspects of this theme have been around for a number of years. Nevertheless, it is a new area of exploitation, and in that regard, as far as I know, this is the first attempt to approach this aspect of American history with a case study of one country over a considerable number of years. I trust that others will profit from my errors in this approach. Moreover, as far as American democracy is concerned, I think this compact view of its influence abroad opens up a new perspective in understanding the philosophy in which we place our faith—a matter which ought to be rather important to Americans today. I have dealt with this at some length in the conclusion as well as in the text. Finally, I must admit that there are a number of aspects of American life and their impact abroad which are not incorporated in this study. Some of them were included in my research, others not. They were excluded somewhat arbitrarily because I felt that although the outline of the main theme—the impact of American democratic experience—might be furthered by the inclusion of such topics, it would also be somewhat cluttered by their presence. A great deal of work yet remains to be done in this whole area —not only in England, of course, but in other countries as well— and I only hope that this little study of mine helps to stimulate others to undertake the task.

viii There is one more matter—that of acknowledgment. Only three people read the manuscript, and to them I am particularly glad to give thanks. Granville Hicks read part of the manuscript and made numerous shrewd observations, as is his wont, and I trust that I have made good use of them. Morse Peckham, director of the University of Pennsylvania Press, saw the manuscript in crude form and happily recognized some merit in it. For his contributions to the refining process I am very appreciative. And then Merle Curti—who encouraged me in the task year after year, read the manuscript in all the weird stages of its development, and never relaxed his faith—how can one express his gratitude to such a person? I am, of course, eternally in debt—literally as well as figuratively —to my parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Lillibridge of Vermillion, South Dakota, who have been maintaining, as it were, the Foundation for the Support of G. D. Lillibridge for a great many years, and who, in the interests of this cause, advanced the necessary extra funds needed for me to take my family to Europe. I am grateful as well to my four children—Mike, Lin, Jenny, and Cathy—who tore up only fifty pages of the manuscript before they were caught, when it might well have been a hundred and fifty. And finally, I am pleased to announce that my wife, Florence, never laid a finger on the manuscript. More than anyone else, she is responsible for the decision to do the book, and for calmly and gently keeping me at the task without once using the whip. But she never typed a line or made suggestions about how the book should be written, which ought to entitle her to the Nobel Peace Prize. G. D. Lillibridge State College Chico, California February 1954

Contents Introduction: THE AMERICAN DESTINY

xi

Chapter 1. 1830-1837. T H E PEOPLE, THE PEOPLE, REMEMBER THEM, TOO

1

Trumpet to the mouth of freedom

3

The noble language of free men

9

A government that is cheap

12

Undue influence at the polls

19

Men of all sects dwell together

23

The glorious Republic

27

Chapter 2. 1837-1848. LIGHT THE WHOLE WORLD TO FREEDOM

40

An example worthy of emulation

41

The cause of the difference is this

48

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

49

Manifest destiny

59

By whom are the liberties of the United States now threatened?

65

Free trade and America

74

Chapter 3. 1848-1867. THE GRADUAL AMERICANIZATION OF OUR INSTITUTIONS

80

The mission of America is to liberate the world

81

The difference is striking and the explanation easy

84

The haven of peace, prosperity, wealth, and liberty

90

The two members for the United States

95

The eyes of Europe were upon them

107

Conclusion: RETURN OF THE AMERICAN DESTINY

123

Notes

127

Bibliographical Note

151

Index

158

ABOUT THE NOTES The notes will be found on pages 127-149. In the text, referential notes are indicated by superior numbers in roman type; discussion notes by superior numbers in italics. In the note section, at the upper right-hand corner of each recto page and the upper left-hand corner of each verso page, will be found boldface numbers indicating the pages of the text to which the notes on these two pages refer.

The American Destiny The faith of a people in their greater destiny has been a propelling force of considerable power in the history of the world. Near its best such a belief has enrolled individuals in the inspiring task of achieving their own moral, material, and cultural elevation, as it surely did for the Elizabethans. At its worst such an assured superiority has infected nations with a racism that has called for the surgery of the sword. In its more perfect form, such an ideal has spurred on a people to their own higher good and at the same time inspired, without malice, the efforts of others as well, which happened when this concept of destiny underwrote the American genius at its most significant moments of success in the first seventy-five years of the Republic. The mere existence of the American continent with its bold and unlimited opportunities aroused men from the beginning. The glittering lure of great deeds to be done and rewards to be gained in the vast exciting regions westward across the Atlantic provided much of the impulse for exploration and empire four hundred years ago. And the spiritual blood of those who first permanently moved into the new lands ran rich with the holy conviction that here a new world— one decreed by God Himself and greater than any before it—was to rise. So the Puritans of New England, from the magisterial mighty like Winthrop and Cotton down to the humble in the pew, gave meaning to their labor in the Lord's vineyard in Massachusetts Bay as the final, conclusive experiment by which all mankind was to be judged and reformed. America was to be, as Jonathan Edwards later put it, "the glorious renovator of the world." Though this peculiar shape given to the American destiny was to change radically in the brief passage of time, the idea of an American destiny was not lost in the process, but was indeed strengthened in the transformation. For by the last quarter of the eighteenth century, when the American emphasis had shifted away from the theological, Americans were more deeply than ever before involved in the assurance of a unique destiny for themselves. America still lay defined as the savior of the world, but now American soil was to be marked off as the proving ground for the new ideas of individual liberty and social freedom. The fate of freedom here was to determine the fate of freedom everywhere. Americans of all opinion shared these sentiments, and on the scroll of prophets for the American future the names of the Founding

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• BEACON OF FREEDOM