Thus from the plague-
spot at her heart has America become the propagandist of despotism in
Europe. Nothing weighs so fearfully against the cause of the people of
Europe as this kind of American influence. Through almost every city
of Europe are men whose great glory it appears to be to proclaim that
they worship the beast, and wear his name in their foreheads. I have
seen sometimes, in the forests, a vigorous young sapling which had
sprung up from the roots of an old, decaying tree. So, unless the
course of things alters much in America, a purer civil liberty will
spring up from her roots in Europe, while her national tree is blasted
with despotism. It is most affecting, in moving through French
circles, to see what sadness, what anguish of heart, lies under that
surface which seems to a stranger so gay. Each revolution has cut its
way through thousands of families, ruining fortunes, severing domestic
ties, inflicting wounds that bleed, and will bleed for years. I once
alluded rather gayly to the numerous upsets of the French government,
in conversation with a lady, and she laughed at first, but in a moment
her eyes filled with tears, and she said, "Ah, you have no idea what
these things are among us.
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