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

International Copyright Lavw.
echasers for themn. For this was the period, ren dered somewhat famous by the contemptuous sneer
of the British critic, contained in the phrase, since made proverbial by the noble commentary
which American Literature has passed upon it " Who reads an American book?" Verily, up to this
period, writers of American books were few indeed.
The national mind, in every thing that belonged to
the fine arts, belles-letteses and the supe rio r sciences,
seems to have acknowledged its incapacity, and to
have surrendered itself, passively, to the foreign
teacher, which had so recently been its tyrant.
No works of art issued from the native press-no
fancy, no fiction, no humor, no romance! The ima gination of the nation-the resources of which are,
in reality, wondrous and uinsurpassable,* crouching
in shadow, with wing folded, and head drooping
upon its bosom,-was not even conjectured to have
an existence!
It was natural enough that, in the newly-born
passion for thorouch independence, which distinguished the feelings of our people at the close of
the war of 1812,- and which led to the adoption
of a government system for the protection of domestic manufactures, —tbe poliev which this feeling declared, should also extend itself to other
objects than those which concerned the physical
being only. The policy which declared for making
our own woollens, necessarily gave some thought to
books., But no such protection was afforded by
government to this branch of domestic industry.
The notion seems to have been, if our bodies are
tive of ad mirable effects, in impressing upon us, even
through shame an d s tripes, a better sense of na tional dignity than we seemed before to entertain.
Our ocean-v ictories followed, a t the happy moment,
to confirm in us the new-born sense of pride and
patriotism. That war, so equally distinguished by
humiliating disasters and exhilarating successes,
did very much to sever the links that bound the
mind of the nation to its old colonial faith. A gene ral intellectual awakening seemed to follow it, and we suspect that the records of our patent of fice, (taken as one of the signs of intellectual pro gress, though in matters merely utilitarian,) will
show a more remarkable advance in the history of
domestic inventions, from the year 1815 to that of
1835-a term of twenty years-than can be shown
by any other country, of similar population, in the
same space of time. The arts are kindred. Those
of mere utility and those of beauty and refinement,
however dissimilar in their uses and habiliments,
belong yet to the same great famnily. They are not
hostile, though the one presides at the piano, while
to the other is deputed the humbler duties of put ting the household in proper order. The physical
wants of the individual supplied, those of his intel lect clamor for their dues. It is a sufficient proof
of the natural intellectual tendencies of the Ame rican people, that their anxiety for their mental
supplies did not linger and wait upon those which
concerned the animal nature only. The non-inter course with Great Britain, which had cut off the
supplies of blankets, woollens and other commodi ties of'like nature, had been far more decidedly
beneficial in cutting off the supply of books. It
was in the very midst of the conflict that Ameri can Literature, such as it is, first sprang into exis tence. The Port-Folio, by Dennie, one of our best
period icals, was first published in 1812. This was
n ot the only instan ce. Th e laws l dem and and
supply did not fail to pro duc e their effects, and the
sa me n a tion al spirit, which clamored for our own
manufactures, w a s equally busy, if less clamorous,
in strivi ng to supply the lack of Literature. The
preparation of school and classical books, which
h as since bec ome one of the most extensive businesses of the American publisher, may be said to
hav e begu n at this period. At all events, we shall
be p erfectly saf e in s ay ing that, prior to 1815, the
issues fron th e American press were not only reprints wholly from foreignl sources, but seere confined chiefly to works of science and education.
7e need make no special exception in behalf of the
domeustic histories? which, in small editions, were
generally so many appeals to local patriotism, and
accordingly, most usually, were published by subscription. As little may be said of the young
poet, who, here and there, in some one or other
city, sent fo~rth his slender vo~lume at his own expense, rather with the view to seeing his verses in
print, than with any sanguine hope of findinga per-'
I * This remark may surprise those, who, not regarding the
thousand circumstances which have tended to discourage
the progress of the American imagination, in its legitimate
direction, infer its absence, from the deficiency of its ima ginative Literature-a deficietncy, which, we hope to show,
exists only in the ignorance of our critics as to what the
nation has really (lone. But the proofs of the most vigorous imaginative presence are every where around us-in
the boldness of our public and social designs-in the rapid
and vehement energies of our people,-in the very extrava gance of their contemplations, the unfamiliar elevation and
novelty of their modes of speech, their swelling cl-haracter,
and really remarkable progress. The history of tlhe people
of the United States is itself a great and astonishing rominiiance. It is a history belonging to that school of which
Robinson Crusoe is an admirable example. Here is a nation, like the individual, cast naked upon the desert, ignoranrt, unlettered, poor, desolate, yet, out of themselves and
the wondrous resources of their nature, contriving means
against all enemies, without and within-shaking themselves free'from the " old man of the sea"-no inappropriate
term for the mother country-founding a great empire,
building great cities, sending forth noble fleets,-penetrating
the wildest regions-winning the mastery every where, and
now confronting the masters of the old world and challenging them to a fair field and no favor. This is the cause of
qparrel and vexation, of sneer, and hate, atnd disparagement.
And all this the work of fifty years! Verily, if' this do not
prove the presence of a daritng wing,.then never nation
possessed one. The imagination has more to do with the
ordinary works of utilitarianism, than ordinary people seem
lo imagine.
II
1844.]