THE ANIMUS OF '76.

New Zealand Mail, 20 August 1902, Page 57 (Supplement)

THE ANIMUS OF '76.

A our Uncle Samuel is a creature of •many moods. To-day he is engaged in entertaining in tlie most lavish manner an English sportsman or a German Prince; to-morrow he is engaged in disputing tlie well-founded and sincere neighbourly disposition of his closest national 'associates. This moment he is absorbed in the exploitation of vast schemes for the national aggrandisement; the next he is wearing his blackest frown, daring the world to interfere in his plans. Recent events illustrate the facility with which the American people change front. . They likewise emphasise the unfaltering hatred of Great Britain which exists in the United States. Time has had no mollifying influence upon the animus of ’76. The latent spirit of the revolution is every ready to burst into flame or create a bonfire around which great men of the nation dance, and to which the public school teachers point Young America as au occupation most patriotic and proper to emulate. If there is oue thing above another which-gives your Uncle Samuel paramount satisfaction it is the opportunity—of late very frequently presented—to resent with characteristic bluster the allegations of British friendliness to the United States. Perhaps no event of recent years has so surely and specifically exhibited the readiness of the American people to discredit the good intentions of Great Britain as their joyous acceptance of the report that it was European and not British influence which deterred the Powers from intervening in the SpanishAmerican war. In direct violation of the first principles of honesty and fairness the incident exemplifies the true United States spirit, which is anti-British to the greatest extreme. It is impossible to conceive of any pre-arrangement for this national reception of the French cablegram ; rather, it must be accepted as the spontaneous overflow of the American desire to seize every opportunity to minimise the neighbourly act, one which, had it been offered by any other of the great Powers, would have excited the keenest admiration and most enthusiastic respect. . "Twisting the lion’s tail” is a favourite occupation of the American politician.”—-"Canadian Magazine.”