James F. Cooper, Notions of the Americans: Picked Up By a Traveling Bachelor (1828)
James Fennimore Cooper had already published several of his well-known works of fiction prior to the publication of Notions of the Americans in 1828. Written while he and his family were abroad, Cooper described life in the United States during the Jacksonian Era from a Jeffersonian perspective. In this selection, he describes the ingenuity of the Erie Canal, among other things.
Five-and-twenty years ago engineers from Europe began to make their appearance in America. They brought with them the rules of science, and a competent knowledge of the estimates of force, and the adaptation of principles to results; but they brought them, all calculated to meet the contingencies of the European man. Experience showed that they neither knew how to allow for the difficulties of a novel situation, nor for the excess of intellect they were enabled to use. Their estimates were always wild, uncertain, and fatal, in a country that was still experimenting. But five-and-twenty years ago was too soon for canals in America. It was wise to wait for a political symptom in a country where a natural impulse will always indicate the hour for action.
Though five-and-twenty, or twenty, or even fifteen years, were too soon, still ten were not. Ten years ago, demonstrations had been made which enabled keen observers to detect that the time for extraordinary exertion had come. The great western canal of New-York was conceived and planned. But instead of seeking for European engineers, a few of the common surveyors of the country were called to the aid of those who were intrusted with the duty of making the estimates; and men of practical knowledge, who understood the people with whom they had to deal, and who had tutored their faculties in the thousand collisions of active life, were brought to the task as counsellors. The result is worthy of grave attention. The work, in its fruits and in its positive extent, exceeded any thing of a similar nature ever attempted in Christendom.
The authority to whom responsibility was due, was more exacting than any of our hemisphere. Economy was inculcated to a degree little known in other nations; and, in short, greater accuracy than usual was required under circumstances apparently the least favourable to attain it. Now, this canal was made (with such means) at a materially less cost, in infinitely less time, and with a boldness in the estimates, and an accuracy in the results, that were next to marvellous. There was not a man of any reputation for science employed in the work. But the utmost practical knowledge of men and of things was manifested in the whole of the affair. The beginning of each year brought its estimate of the expense, and of the profits, and the close its returns, in wonderful conformity. The labour is completed, and the benefit is exceeding the hopes of the most sanguine.
In this sketch of the circumstances under which the New-York canal has been made, we may trace the cause of the prodigious advance of this nation. Some such work as this was necessary to demonstrate to the world, that the qualities which are so exclusively the fruits of liberty and of a diffused intelligence, have an existence elsewhere than in the desires of the good. Without it, it might have been said the advance of America is deceptive; she is doing no more than our own population could do under circumstances that admitted of so much display, but she will find the difference between felling trees, and burning forests, and giving the finish which denotes the material progress of society. The mouths of such critics are now silenced. The American can point to his ploughs, to his ships, to his canals, to his bridges, and, in short, to every thing that is useful in his particular state of society, and demand, where a better or cheaper has been produced, under any thing like circumstances of equality?
It is vain to deny the causes of the effects of the American system. . . . since they rest on principles that favour the happiness and prosperity of the human race. We should not cavil about names, nor minor distinctions, in governments, if the great and moving principles are such as contemplate the improvement of the species. . .
The construction of canals, on a practical scale, the mining for coal, the exportation of cotton goods, and numberless other improvements, which argue an advancing state of society, have all sprung into existence within the last dozen years. It is a knowledge of these facts, with a clear and sagacious understanding of their immense results, coupled with the exciting moral
causes, that render the American sanguine, aspiring, and confident in his anticipations. He sees that his nation lives centuries in an age, and he feels no disposition to consider himself a child, because other people, in their dotage, choose to remember the hour of his birth. How pitiful do the paltry criticisms on an inn, or the idle, and, half the time, vulgar comments on the vulgarity of a parvenu, become, when objects and facts like these are pressing themselves on the mind! I have heard it said, that there are European authors who feel a diffidence of contracting acquaintances with American gentlemen, because they feel a consciousness of having turned the United States into ridicule! I can tell these unfortunate subjects of a precipitate opinion, that they may lay aside their scruples. No American of any character, or knowledge of his own country, can feel any thing but commiseration for the man who has attempted to throw ridicule on a nation like this. The contest is too unequal to admit of any doubt as to the result, and the wiser way will be for these Quixotes in literature to say and think as little as possible about their American tilting match, in order that the world may not liken their lances to that used by the hero of La Mancha, and their helmets to barbers' basins.
Document Analysis
1. How does Cooper describe the construction of the New York (Erie) Canal?
2. What adjectives does Cooper use to describe Americans? Do we use the same kinds of adjectives to describe Americans today?
What is Cooper defending in this piece? Are there telltale signs that he composed this work while living in Europe?