DOES AMERICA HATE ENGLAND?
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:]
Sin,—In your article in the Spectator of June 5th on the question, "Does America Hate England ?" you say, "The undoubted wrongs perpetrated by England—especially the using of hired Hessians and Indian savages to kill their own heroic ancestors—are dwelt upon and impressed in their most exaggerated forms on American boys and girls." If you will allow me, I should like to remind yon, as regards the hiring of Indians, of what Professor Goldwin Smith, a fairly impartial authority as between England and the United States, says on p. 93 of his book on "The United States," namely, " they " (the Indians) "had been enlisted first by the colonists, so that Chatham's tremendous invective was misplaced, saving as such a policy might be more disgraceful to a Government than to rebels." As regards the hiring of Hessians, it is to be remembered that all troops who have fought under the British Crown, in modern times at any rate, have been hired, and that the colonists did not hesitate to call in the French, the Spanish, and the Dutch to help them kill our "heroic ancestors." As the colonists were rebelling against a Sovereign who was King of Hanover there was no obvious reason for them to feel surprised or aggrieved if they found Germans fighting against them. Not only do the public authorities in the United States bring up the children on false history, but they enforce false notions of history in the qualifying examinations for teachers in the public "common schools." As an instance, only last December the following question occurred in the history paper set at the teachers' examination in one of the counties of California, viz., "What territory did Mexico lose as a consequence of the secession of Texas P" Every one, except the teachers and children in the common schools of the United States, is well aware that Texas, together with New Mexico and Arizona, was taken from Mexico by violence, after one of the most unprovoked wars in human history. From what I was able to ascertain as to the feeling in California towards England and the English, during a four years' residence there, I can confirm your opinion about the hatred of England. I think I can go a little farther and say that, in the extreme West at any rate, Englishmen are hated, not only collectively, but also individually. That hatred is the necessary result of the teaching of false or misleading history in the common schools.—I am, Sir, ctc.,
S. C. S. HAMMOND.
4 Amersham Road, Putney, Tune 101h.
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