International Copyright Law, Part I [pp. 7-17]

184. Inentoa CoyihtLw
indifference, as if the matter did not in any ways
concern them, the great and singular struggle, now
in progress, between the native and the foreign ge nius;-the genits loci now, for the first time, strug gling into birth and claiming to be heard; and that
maternal mind, throned in the empire of song and
thought, and upheld by the mightiest masters of
art that ever made a nation famous, from which
we proudly claim to have derived all the qualities
which should accord, in the progress of time, a
like eminence to the genius of our country! We
take, from the writings of Dr. Channing, the fol lowing lucid and comprehensive paragraph.
" The facility," says that great writer, "with
which we receive the literature of foreign coun tries, instead of being a reason for neglecting our
own, is a strong motive for its cultivation.' We
mean not to be paradoxical, but we believe it would
be better to admit no books from abroad, than to
make them substitutes for our own intellectual ac tivity. The more we receive from other coun tries, the greater the need of an original literature.
A people, into whose minds the thoughts of fo reigners are poured perpetually, needs an energy
within itself to resist and to modify this mighty in fluence; and without it will inevitably sink under
the worst bondage-will become intellectually en slaved. We have certainly no desire to complete
our restrictive system, by adding to it a literary
non-intercourse law. We rejoice in the increasing
intellectual connexion between this country and
the old world. But sooner would we rupture it,
than see our country sitting passively at the feet of
foreign teachers. Better have no Literature than
to form ourselves unresistingly on a foreign one.
The true sovereigns of a country are those who
determine its mintd-its modes of thinking-its
taste, its principles; and we cannot consent to lodge
this sovereignty in the hands of strangers. A coun try, like an individual, has dignity and power only in
proportion as it is self-formed. There is a great stir
to secure to ourselves the manufacturing of our own
clothing. fVe say, let others spin and weave for
us, but let them not think for us. A people, whose
government and laws are nothing but the embodying of public opinion, should jealously guard this
opinion against foreign dictation. We need a Literature to counteract, and to use wisely, the Literature which we import. We need an inward
power proportionate to that which is exerted upon
u s, as the means of self-subsistenc e. It is particularly true of 3 people, whose institutions demand for their support a free and bold spirit, that
they should be able to subject to a manly and independent criticism whatever comes from abroad.
These views seem to us to deserve serious attention. W~e are becoming, more and more, a reading people. Books are already among the most
powerful influences here. The question is, shall
Europe, through these, ~ashion us after its plea
sure f Shall America be only an echo of what is
thoug,ht and written under the aristocracies beyond
the ocean?"
No language could put the importance of this
subject more clearly before the mind; and, with out dwelling upon the point, we will proceed to
show that the necessity of a national Literature,
gfreat as it is, to the people of every country, is of
far more importance to the people of the United
States, than it can, by any possibility, be to any
other. In our case, the colonial habit of deferring
to the Mother Country is maintained and stren-gthened, in spite of our political emancipation, by our
employment of the same language. Could we
have found a new dialect-a tongue of our own,
suitable to our condition, and expressive of our
liberties, on the same battle-field where they were
won, we should, by this time, have been in possession of a Literature, in which they might have
been proportionably and permanently enshrined.
The securities for mental independence on the part
of France, Germany and other great nations of
Europe, are to be found chieflv in the obstacles
which their several languages present, as it were,
upon the very threshold. to the invasion and usur
*Would the British people desire the best, the most
honorable and impartial commentary on the character of
their feelings toward this country, let them compare-contrast rather-the deportment of the distinguished Frenchmen who have honored us with their presence, and that of
their own travellers. Let them read the Beaumonts and
De Tocquevilles, and turn from their thoughtful, candid,
and elevated views, to the sickening spite', the low malice, the cavilling and querulous peevishness,. the dishonest
representation, the perverse will, which cannot be made to
see the brighter aspects of the object, but turns perpetually to the more grateful survey of those which may offend,
by which the volumes of the Marryatts, the Trollopes and
VaL. X-2
1844.]
International Copyright Law.
9
pation of strangers. The unknown tongue stands
to the intruder in the guise of a bearded sentinel,
jealous of every approach, and resisting the in o,ress of all not possessing the parole.' We have
no such securities. The enemy approaches us
with the smooth and insidious utterance of our
mother tongue, and we are naturally slow to sus pect hostility in any such approach. How admi rably may we illustrate the important bearino- of
this isolated fact, by a reference to the social and
political relation in which we's,tand, comparatively,
with trance and Enaland. The former we linow,
almost entirely, by acts of kindness. By her aid,
we struggled into national individuality. With the'
exception of the quasi war with the Directory, the
result of that Ishrnaelite aspect in which that body
stood to all the world, she has borne' towards tis,
from the'first day of our political freedom, the
inostencouragingandfriendlycountenance. Such,
too, has been the aspect of tier people. The books
and bearina of her distinguished travellers among
us have been marked bv an equal sense of urbanity and justice.* Enaland, on the contrary, almost