America and the American People

Excerpt from America and the American People

This work of Baron von Raumer which has been recently published in Germany, although in good part of a didactic nature, will not it is thought be without interest for the American public, on account of the reputation which this veteran historian has already acquired, the almost personal concernment of the topics he discusses to every American citizen, and the candid and kindly spirit in which he writes. His opinions on the whole respecting the institutions, the past history, and the future prospects of this country, are in the highest degree favorable; and whenever he allows himself to find fault, which is but seldom, he does it with evident reluctance, and with the air of a friend whose admonitions are wholesome, and not with the bitterness of an enemy. The comparisons too, which he makes between many of the American institutions and the corresponding institutions of Europe, will be found useful and instructive. One virtue of his will not be the less esteemed on account of its rarity among writers in this country; and that is, that he has at least endeavored to make himself well acquainted with what he has undertaken to write about. He has also shown great and commendable carefulness in every instance, not to violate the privileges of a guest by exposing to the world the confidences of private and social intercourse, - a proceeding which some writers on both sides of the water might imitate with advantage.

The Author has made numerous quotations from American works; and these I have compared with the originals, wherever I could have access to them. The delay occasioned by these verifications has unavoidably caused the publication to be postponed somewhat beyond the expected time. I observed in the course of making them, that the Author had occasionally fallen into slight errors in the hurry of copying; these, where I have noticed them, I have silently corrected.

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