[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,— Whatever anti-English prejudice
still lingers in the minds of Americans is far more due to patronizing sympathy
with the South during our Civil War on the part of the dominant social class than to any lingering animosity inherited from the Revolution.
In the December Century, Professor John Erskine of Columbia University, the author of Helen of Troy, writing on Tact," relates the following incident which is in point " The Marquis of Hartington, as 'Lowell liked to tell, visited in the North during the Civil War and considered it proper to advertise his sympathy with the. South. At a reception in New York, Lowell. says, he wore a secession badge. Must truth-telling be_ so dis- courteous Y Later his rugged honesty prompted him to call on Lincoln himself at the White House. Lincoln, not wishing to recognize the affront, persisted in misunderstanding his name; and received him cordially, addressing him as `Mr. Partington: This was tact."
I am, Sir, &c., A. R. KIMBALL.
175 Grove Street, Waterbury, Connecticut.
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