[42: 285–90] It is a general experience that the results of study of American society which have been published by travellers are of much less interest and value than the works of the same authors in other fields. In old countries men and things are interesting in themselves. In whatever degree they are so in America, it is of no consequence compared with the interest which attaches to them from the significance with which they bear upon the progress of the race. But not in a few months or even a few twelvemonths can a stranger become so accustomed to the difference of the conditions in which men live here and in the old world, as to be able to study with advantage the multitudinous counter-currents of moral force between which we are all drifting with more or less of unsteady gyration. We can judge of the direction of a broad current only by watching what it carries for a period of time. That at a certain moment a bubble is swinging around or a chip advancing one way or another indicates nothing, we wish to know where the bubble was formed, where did the chip fall into the stream, and it is only so far as travellers are able to compare the present of individuals with the past of the same individuals, [762]or in some more general way to place the phenomena which they find on the surface today in their true sequence with a series reaching to a point higher up-stream that their observations can be of importance, and it is only as we see that they have tried to do this and acquire confidence that they have been in some degree successful, that we can patiently read their reflections.

Men and women of a certain degree of penetration come here from Europe and find certain things on the surface resembling things to which they are accustomed and which are associated in Europe with certain attainments of civilization. Presently discovering that there is no such association here they naturally and reasonably become cautious in regard to accepting the genuineness of any of the apparent evidences of civilized progress which they encounter. They see that there is much life, much stir, much turbulence, much glitter, much bubbling, much rising to the surface, foam, froth and drifting rubbish and according to their temperament or their self interest, or the fashion of their class or party for the moment, they express hope or fear of what it all amounts to, but they help us to really understand it very little.

And among ourselves there is much of the same perplexity. Our interest in what other men think is partly due to the confused result of our own observation and to our real anxiety as to whither we are drifting. We live not for ourselves in America, we live to work for those who are to follow us. We care not for the present except as it is the opportunity to be used for the future. Therefore, this question of the drift of things is vital to us. And who feels altogether sure? Who has not wholly changed his mind as to the value & significance of this or that, in which a few years ago he took great interest? Who does not know that this hope of good and great men was a false hope, and that the labors in which it led them to engage were wasted; that this fear which possessed himself & thousands of others a few years ago was grounded on a fallacy and the struggle which it induced was a vain one? Who has not misinterpreted the most obvious phenomena? Who has not miscalculated the drift of things? Who feels entire confidence that he now sees aright and is working in such a way as shall serve to advance the right?

We have no sooner passed the point of emancipation and gained the appearance of new national unity than we [are] suddenly appalled by hundreds of vortices of official meanness and corruption which betray a fearful weakness in our political system and which could not possibly have come about except through a condition of general folly and demoralization that we are appalled to realize. There is nothing more disgraceful, nothing more frightful, nothing more uncivilized in the worst government of Europe than we have seen in our legislation, our courts of law and our civil service generally since we returned from the war. And the very men who led us in that war have part in and consent to this damnation [763]of the republic. Who does not know this, and who knowing it can help feeling that the most searching study is necessary before a true discrimination can be made between the true and false acquisitions for which we are all working so hard?

Rich men and poor men, Rich communities and poor communities. Penetrate the lacquer and which is which? Where is there trustworthy evidence of true prosperity? Who is it that is successful? What is healthy growth & what is diseased monstrosity?

[I have given some attention to a line of study which appears to me [[to]] have been too much overlooked and it has led me to conclusions in which I feel a satisfactory degree of hopeful assurance and I would therefore commend it to be more thoroughly and generally followed.]