The American Democrat/On Prejudice
ON PREJUDICE.
Prejudice is the cause of most of the mistakes of bodies of men. It influences our conduct and warps our judgment, in politics, religion, habits, tastes and opinions. We confide in one statesman and oppose another, as often from unfounded antipathies, as from reason; religion is tainted with uncharitableness and hostilities, without examination; usages are contemned; tastes ridiculed, and we decide wrong, from the practice of submitting to a preconceived and an unfounded prejudice, the most active and the most pernicious of all the hostile agents of the human mind.
The migratory propensities of the American people, and the manner in which the country has been settled by immigrants from all parts of the christian world, have an effect in diminishing prejudices of a particular kind, though, in other respects, few nations are more bigotted or provincial in their notions. Innovations on the usages connected with the arts of life are made here with less dificulty than common, reason, interest and enterprise proving too strong for prejudice; but in morals, habits and tastes, few nations have less liberality to boast of, than this.
America owes most of its social prejudices to the exaggerated religious opinions of the different sects which were so instrumental in establishing the colonies. The quakers, or friends, proscribed the delightful and elevated accomplishment of music, as, indeed, did the puritans, with the exception of psalmody. The latter confined marriage ceremonies to the magistrates, lest religion should be brought into disrepute! Most of those innocent recreations which help the charities, and serve to meliorate manners, were also forbidden, until an unnatural and monastic austerity, with a caustic habit of censoriousness, got to be considered as the only outward signs of that religious hope, which is so peculiarly adapted to render us joyous and benevolent.
False and extravagant notions on the subject of manners, never fail to injure a sound morality, by mistaking the shadow for the substance. Positive vice is known by all, for happily, conscience and revelation have made us acquainted with the laws of virtue, but it is as indiscreet unnecessarily to enlarge the circle of sins, as it is to expose ourselves to temptations that experience has shown we are unable to resist.
The most obvious American prejudices, connected with morality, are the notions that prevail on the subject of mispending time. That time may be mispent is undeniable, and few are they who ought not to reproach themselves with this neglect, but the human mind needs relaxation and amusement, as well as the human body. These are to be sought in the different expedients of classes, each finding the most satisfaction in those indulgences that conform the nearest to their respective tastes. It is the proper duty of the legislator to endeavor to elevate these tastes, and not to prevent their indulgence. Those nations in which the cord of moral discipline, according to the dogmas of fanatics, has been drawn the tightest, usually exhibit the gravest scenes of depravity, on the part of those who break loose from restraints so ill judged and unnatural. On the other hand, the lower classes of society, in nations where amusements are tolerated, are commonly remarkable for possessing some of the tates that denote cultivation and refinement. Thus do we find in catholic countries, that the men who in protestant nations, would pass their leisure in the coarsest indulgences, frequent operas and theatrical representations, classes of amusements which, well conducted, may be made powerful auxiliaries of virtue, and which generally have a tendency to improve the tastes. It is to be remarked that these exhibitions themselves are usually less gross, and more intellectual in catholic, than in protestant countries, a result of this improvement in manners.
The condition of this country is peculiar, and requires greater exertions than common, in extricating the mind from prejudices. The intimate connexion between popular opinion and positive law is one reason, since under a union so close there is danger that the latter may be colored by motives that have no sufficient foundation in justice. It is vain to boast of liberty, if the ordinances of society are to receive the impression of sectarianism, or of a provincial and narrow morality.
Another motive peculiar to the country, for freeing the mind from prejudice, is the mixed character of the population. Natives of different sections of the United States, and of various parts of Europe are brought in close contact, and without a disposition to bear with each other's habits, association becomes unpleasant, and enmities are engendered. The main result is to liberalize the mind, beyond a question, yet we see neighborhoods, in which oppressive intolerance is manifested by the greater number, for the time being, to the habits of the less. This is a sore grievance, more especially, when, as is quite frequently the case, the minority happen to be in possession of usages that mark the highest stage of civilization. It ought never to be forgotten, therefore, that every citizen is entitled to indulge without comment, or persecution, in all his customs and practices that are lawful and moral. Neither is morality to be regulated by the prejudices of sects, or social classes, but it is to be left strictly to the control of the laws, divine and human. To assume the contrary is to make prejudice, and prejudice of a local origin too, more imperious than the institutions. The justice, not to say necessity of these liberal concessions, is rendered more apparent when we remember that the parties meet as emigrants on what may be termed neutral territory, for it would be the height of presumption for the native of New York, for instance, to insist on his own peculiar customs, customs that other portions of the country perhaps repudiate, within the territory of New England, in opposition not only to the wishes of many of their brother emigrants, but to those of the natives themselves.