correct when I was here first. And this brings
me to a point on which I have, ever since I landed
in the United States last November, observed a strict
silence, though sometimes tempted to break it, but
in reference to which I will, with your good leave,
take you into my confidence now. Even the Press,
being human, may be sometimes mistaken or misinformed,
and I rather think that I have in one or two rare
instances observed its information to be not strictly
accurate with reference to myself. Indeed, I
have, now and again, been more surprised by printed
news that I have read of myself, than by any printed
news that I have ever read in my present state of
existence. Thus, the vigour and perseverance
with which I have for some months past been collecting
materials for, and hammering away at, a new book
on America has much astonished me; seeing that all
that time my declaration has been perfectly well
known to my publishers on both sides of the Atlantic,
that no consideration on earth would induce me to
write one. But what I have intended, what I
have resolved upon (and this is the confidence I
seek to place in you) is, on my return to England,
in my own person, in my own journal, to bear, for
the behoof of my countrymen, such testimony to the
gigantic changes in this country as I have hinted
at to-night. Also, to record that wherever I
have been, in the smallest places equally with the
largest, I have been received with unsurpassable
politeness, delicacy, sweet temper, hospitality,
consideration, and with unsurpassable respect for the
privacy daily enforced upon me by the nature of my
avocation here and the state of my health.
This testimony, so long as I live, and so long as
my descendants have any legal right in my books, I
shall cause to be republished, as an appendix to
every copy of those two books of mine in which I
have referred to America. And this I will do
and cause to be done, not in mere love and thankfulness,
but because I regard it as an act of plain justice
and honour.’
I said these words with the greatest earnestness that
I could lay upon them, and I repeat them in print
here with equal earnestness. So long as this
book shall last, I hope that they will form a part
of it, and will be fairly read as inseparable from
my experiences and impressions of America.
Charles Dickens.
May, 1868.
(1) Note to the original edition.
— Or let him refer to an able, and perfectly
truthful article, in the foreign quarterly
review, published in the present month of October;
to which my attention has been attracted, since these
sheets have been passing through the press.
He will find some specimens there, by no means remarkable
to any man who has been in America, but sufficiently
striking to one who has not.
