Farquhar Macrae diary, 1832
48 pages (1 volume)
Farquhar Macrae, a Scottish traveler, wrote this 48-page journal featuring descriptions of his time in Connecticut between August 11 and September 10, 1832. He provided remarks on the landscape, people, social and political climates, Andrew Jackson, military and navy wages, conceit, inhospitality, wealth, poverty, hypocrisy, and more. He made comparisons between the customs observed in different parts of the United States and Great Britain and Europe. Between August and September, Macrae spent time in New Haven, Hartford, Stafford Springs, Vernon, and Norwich. At the end of the journal, Macrae outlined his plans to travel to Savannah and then to Florida to visit his sister.
The marbled cover of the journal and the title on the first page indicate that this is the seventh journal Macrae wrote during his travels. This journal features descriptions of parties hosted in New Haven (despite the cholera outbreak); militia "training day" with mandatory participation for all who could not afford to pay the $15 annual fine; differences in treatment and pay of Navy soldiers versus those serving on land; his various relationships included a potentially romantic one with a woman named Mary Benjamin; and other topics. In one case, he remarked on his tiresome two-day stay at the Washington Hotel, a health resort at Stafford Springs. Near the end of the journal Macrae made his feelings towards American culture very clear. He discussed the lack of a "national mark of character" that leads to "bad copying of foreign tastes." In a candid expression of his views on the people of the United States, he wrote:
"I contemn the nation for their concealed fondness for aristocracy, and outward dislike towards it. I dislike their consummate vanity and overweening self-conceit. I abhor their Jacobin creed and despise the impudent freedom of their lower classes. I pity their cupidity and jealousy, and feel vexed at their obstinate eulogy. Their country is magnificent and has incredibly advanced in prosperity & improvement, and will be no doubt the greatest of nations if it holds together, but at present it is a mere child" (September 4, 1832)