'The persons who exert themselves to mislead the American
public on this question; to put down its discussion; and
to suppress and distort the truth, in every possible way;
are (as you may easily suppose) those who have a strong
interest in the existing system of piracy and plunder;
inasmuch as, so long as it continues, they can gain a
very comfortable living out of the brains of other men
while they would find it very difficult to earn bread
by the exercise of their own. These are the editors and
proprietors of newspapers almost exclusively devoted to
the republication of popular English works. They are for
the most part, men of very low attainments, and of more
than indifferent reputation 1
This paragraph was reproduced in various American papers and in some embelli
shed with further paragraphs invented by an ingenious American journalist
but published as though also written by Dickens. These forged paragraphs
offensively castigated the Americans for their 'worship of pelf' and 'meanness'
complained of their dinners and balls 'forced upon me, many times to the seriou
inconvenience of myself and my party', and declared that 'the total difference
between our good old English custome, and the awkwardness, the uncouth manners,
and the unmitigated selfishness whichi meet you everywhere in America, made my
journey one of a good deal of annoyance1. Dickens was naturally outraged
by this brazen fraud but disdained to publish any repudiation of it. He had
his revenge later, though, in chapter 16 of Martin Chuzzlewit where Martin,
after inspecting a copy of the New York Rowdy Journalhesitantly asks its
editor, Colonel Diver, whether the paper ever deals in 'forged letters
solemnly purporting to have been written at recent periods by living men'.
Far from being abashed, the Colonel cheerfully admits the fact and boasts
that the paper sells hugely in consequence. 'We are a smart people, here,
and can appreciate smartness', he tells the wondering Martin.
All this while Dickens was working away at his travel book which he
decided to call American Notes for General Circulation. That the title
itself was intended to carry on his war against the piratical American press
is clear from the motto he proposed to print on the book's title-page:
'In reply to a question from the Bench, the Solicitor
for the Bank observed, that this kind of notes circula
ted the most extensively, in those parts of the world
where they were stolen or forged.- Old Bailey Report'.
Forster dissuaded him from making such an obvious gesture of provocation
at the 'vagabonds' (Dickens's usual term for American journalists and editors)
but the title remained. Forster also managed to dissuade him from publishing
a prefatory chapter entitles Introductory and Necessary to be Read' because
'its proper self-assertion' might be mistaken for 'an apprehension of hostile
judgements which he was anxious to deprecate or avoid'. 9) it is a pity
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