From J. Spector St. John’s letter ‘What is an American’, we learn much about the things that distinguish an American from a European. To begin, he writes that wealthy Europeans do not mingle with poor members of the society, these same wealthy people live a very luxurious life and employ thousands of people in their industries. This is unlike the wealthy Americans who associate with those who are poor. Most Americans are farmers and are social and law-abiding citizens, the leaders exercise their power with a lot of restraint while Europeans enforce their power in a way that creates fear among the subjects.
The American society is closely-knit irrespective of one’s social status or wealth, each person reaching out to others through a variety of channels like the rivers and roads. This is unlike the Europeans who keep to themselves and are said to be lonely in their homes, preferring to stay indoors. Besides, Americans are hardworking, each person works for himself and employed laborers are paid fairly. Wealthy Europeans resort to employing thousands of poor folks to work on their houses and farms and do not pay them well as the writer talks of clay-built huts and miserable cabins doting the European landscape.
European leaders oppress their subjects; they make the subjects work hard for them while they enjoy all the benefits. The Europeans have a penchant for titles and prefer to be mentioned or referred to by these titles, such titles include bishops, kings, esquire and magistrate. Americans see themselves as farmers even though some have titles, at congregations, the priests treat all the churchgoers equally. Americans have more freedom than their European counterparts, each person is free to do as he may wish, this is unlike the Europeans who do as their leader’s command.