History 209 Final v3

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dismantled colonial hierarchies, prominent community members produced etiquette guides in

order to limit the perilous extremes of individual autonomy as well as to sharpen blurred class

distinctions as they saw fit.

To date, three historians have carried the historical discussion of mens etiquette guides

in the 19th century. In her 1983 text, Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-

Class Culture in American 1830-1870, historian Karen Halttunen argues that, without clearly

identified boundaries and authority structures, Americans in the early nineteenth century

perceived hypocrisy as a tangible threat to social order. The consistent images of the confidence

man and painted woman that appeared in etiquette guides illustrate that Americans were not

motivated by strict sentimentalisma desire to cling to an idealized past or to disguise the evils

of the nineteenth-century industrial order they were helping to usher inbut by the perception

that widespread hypocrisy threatened to reduce the American Republic to social chaos. The

confidence man and painted woman, thus, emerged as cultural icons out of a crisis of social

identity experienced by men and women navigating new fluid social hierarchies and geographic

landscapes.2 Etiquette guides, she argues, combatted hypocrisy by endorsing sincerity as a

critical component of republican character through the archetypal antihero images of the

confidence man and painted woman, as well as by defining a sincerity system that established

boundaries of conduct rooted in sentimental notions of morality.3

Like Halttunen, historian John F. Kasson argues in his 1990 text,Rudeness and Civility:

Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America, that etiquette guides served to mediate

between the competing claims of social authority and democratic mobility, but that they did so

Nineteenth-Century Urban America, (New York: Hill and Wang, 1990), 6; Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the

American Revolution, (New York: Vintage Books, 1991), p. 6-8.2 Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women, p. xv.3 Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women, p. xvi.


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by deflecting the pressures of inequalities back on the individual.4 Middle-class advisors, he

holds, sought to quell anxieties over the new social order by defining standards of individual

middle-class behavior by which individuals could judge the sincerity of their peers. While these

standards helped ease trust issues in business and commerce, they also served to transform the

nations egalitarian assertions into a system of inequality by providing markers that excluded

entire social classes, ethnic groups and cultures.5

Lastly, historian Gordon S. Wood commits a number of pages of his landmark text, The

Radicalism of the American Revolution, to the discussion of the emergence of etiquette guides in

the 1830s. Complicating the arguments of Halttunen and Kasson, Wood argues that etiquette

guides were among the first direct exercises in popular politics, as authors experimented with the

creation of standardized perceptions of middle-class identities. By injecting notions of

republican morality into evolving popular conceptualizations of business, wealth, pleasure,

fashion, and labor, etiquette guides served to both curb the dangerous excesses of democracy and

popularize the morality of the Revolution.6 An accurate analysis of etiquette guides in the

nineteenth century must include Halttunens discussion of hypocrisy and social control, Kassons

study of individualism and market anxieties, and Woods analysis of etiquette guides as powerful

expressions of popular culture.

The dynamic combination of market revolutions, evolving political and religious

identities, and population shifts created a particularly unique urban culture in the Young

Republic. The egalitarian vision of the Revolution severely weakened the power of authority

structures over individuals, releasing into the market thousands of individuals previously

4 John F. Kasson,Rudeness & Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America, (New York: Hill and

Wang, 1990), p. 6.5 Kasson,Rudeness and Civility, p. 7.


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dependent on the patronage of a closed aristocracy.7 Although the Young Republic was anything

but egalitarian, this new conceptualization of society provided the first opportunities for

Americans to defy, en masse, traditional social hierarchies in order to pursue whatever amount of

equalityor inequalitytheir character, labor, and industriousness dictated. Assisted by

technological advances in transportation, welcomed by new industries in need of labor, and

encouraged by the individualism of the Second Great Awakening, independent men and women

set out for the nations urban centers by the thousands, looking to stand on their own two feet

rather than to find success in the shadows of the rapidly dissolving patronage system. Between

1830 and 1860, the largest American cities expanded by an average of 550% percent, with the

population of New York jumping from 125,000 in 1820 to 800,000 in 1860.8 Furthermore, by

1860, approximately forty percent of the population in Americas fifty largest cities was

comprised of foreign-born immigrants. Americans taking part in the massive urban migrations

pioneered unprecedented new paths geographically, politically, religiously, and socially. Turned

loose by the Revolutions dissolution of monarchical and aristocratic authority, these men and

women exercised their new-found freedom by pursuing their individual interests without the

safety net of family to guide and protect themestablishing each individual as an active

participant in the diminishing of patriarchal authority as well. 9 Without authoritative

institutions or precedent to specify norms of conduct, however, many Americans began to

6

Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution, (New York: Vintage Books, 1991), p. 356.7 The diminishing power of authoritative institutions was widespread in the wake of the Revolution, weakening

not just patriarchal authority over an individuals economic autonomy, but also Church authori ty over an individuals

religious beliefs, professional authority over individual opinion, parental authority over their young adult offspring,

and the authority of a land owning class over political aspirations; Alan Taylor, William Coopers Town: Power and

Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic, (New York: Vintage, 1995); Paul E. Johnson & Sean

Wilentz, The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in Nineteenth-Century America , (New York:

Oxford University Press, 1994); Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women, 13. Kasson,Rudeness and

Civility, p. 33-37.8 Kasson,Rudeness and Civility, 71.


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perceive the rugged individualism that emerged from the Revolutions egalitarian sentiments as a

possible threat to the moral character of the nation and to the Republican experiment itself.

Beginning in the early 1830s, etiquette guides became popularized as Americans began to search

for cohesiveness and collective security in a society of independent distrustful strangers.

Etiquette guides emerged as an authority in this period because they were both consumer

legitimized and aimed at governing individual conduct. By 1860, one hundred and two etiquette

unique etiquette guides had been published.10

The popularity of these manuals is evident in the

twenty-one editions of William A. Alcotts Young Mans Guide produced between 1833 and

1858, as well as in the ten thousand copies sold of Daniel Eddys Young Mans Guide.

11

This

prolific output is not simply the result of new technologies in the field of printing, but directly

reflects the widespread apprehension created by ill-defined authoritative structures in a new

anonymous culture of strangers. Attempting to curb the perceived dangers of individual

autonomy, self-professed authorities wrote and published etiquette guides promoting individual

self-accountability in matters of morality, commerce, discipline, and conduct in society.

Remarking on the authors of etiquette guides, Kasson explains that, their enterprise must be

viewed within the larger concern of how to establish order and authority in a restless, highly

mobile, rapidly urbanizing and industrializing democracy.12 Seeking to avoid overt conflict,

they turned issues of class and social grievance back upon the individual. This understanding is

critical to the interpretation of etiquette guides in the period at question. Legitimized by the

purchasing power of individuals, etiquette guides were a direct expression of authority and

9 E. Anthony Rotundo,American Manhood: Transformations in Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern

Era, (New York: Basic Books, 1993), pp. 56-57.10 John F. Kasson,Rudeness & Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America, (New York: Hill and

Wang, 1990), p. 44.11 Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women, p. 1.12 Kasson,Rudeness & Civility, p. 60.


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thieves, and men are to each other wolves and foxes.16 In this way, etiquette guides provide

examples of both the perceived issues of the time and the proposed solutions. Even as men begin

to find success through individual pursuits of social mobility, the authors rational manifestations

of manhood and their emotionally charged warnings reflect a palpable apprehension to increased

levels of individualismor the opposite, reduced level of social authoritative structures.

Advice manuals and etiquette guides painted the American gentleman as a simple man,

held accountable to society and set apart by the honesty of his character, rather than his station.

Simply, the American gentleman was a man deserving of the respect he demanded. Author of

How to Behave: A Pocket Manual of Republican Etiquette, and Guide to Correct Personal

Habits, Samuel R. Wells, wrote, no man should be valued the less or the more on account of his

grandfather, his position, his possessions, or his occupation. The man should be superior to the

accidents of his birth, and should take that rank which is due his merit. 17 Removed from

hierarchies based on birth and title, given equality under the law, and isolated from family

business networks, independent white American men in the Young Republic needed to find new

ways to organize themselves in a marketplace of strangers. In order to overcome trust issues and

build confidence and credit, etiquette guides instructed men to pursue an honest and virtuous

character. Butler offered this advice to his inexperienced readers, when we have occasion for a

counselor or attorney, a physician or apothecary, whatever we may be ourselves, we always

choose to trust our property and person to men of the best character.18 Merging notions of

Christian morality and republican virtue, these men found success and community by being good

moral Christians, industrious Americans, trusted businessmen, and respected neighbors. Thus,

16 Butler,American Gentleman, p. 44.17 Samuel R. Wells,How to Behave: A Pocket Manual of Republican Etiquette, and Guide to Correct Personal

Habits, (New York: Fowler and Wells, 1857), Internet Archive (archive.org), Ebook and Texts Archive, American

Libraries, San Francisco, California, p. 124.


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the American gentleman was defined as a man who thoughtfully chose to hold himself

accountable to uphold the moral middle-class male ideal promoted by etiquette guides, in spite of

the citys self-indulgent temptations.

Political and economic concerns substantially influenced ideas of manhood, as anxieties

over the unsteady Republican experiment and confidence in the anonymous market brought

virtue to the forefront of personal character. Rev. Orville Dewey wrote that immoral behavior

dishonors and degrades, it vexes and demoralizes a people, and that it concerns not only the

mans virtue, but the mans manhood. Unless we were to say, as we might more justly, that

virtue, rightly construed is the manhood of man.

19

Likewise, Butler explained, to develop fully

the beau ideal of an American gentleman, one should write whole volumes of sound morality,

and whole treatises of that genuine politeness which has its foundation in kindness of heart and

purpose.20 To etiquette advisors, manners and morals were nearly synonymous and woven with

a republican pride that further-promoted collective benefit. Wells confirmed this, stating, good

manners and good morals rest upon the same basis and that justice and benevolence can no

more be satisfied without the one that without the other.21 While etiquette prior to the

nineteenth century was addressed to nobles at court and centered on basic table manners and the

civilizing of rough behavior, beginning in the 1830s, etiquette became popularized and grew

beyond surface-level notions of behavior to promote a sense of morality deep enough to endorse

not just individual purity, but a sense of social responsibility. Readers of nineteenth-century

etiquette manuals no longer learned simple rules like, Do not spit on the table or put not off

your clothes in the presence of Others, nor go out of your Chamber hald Drest, but were

18 Butler,American Gentleman, p. 21.19 Rev. Orville Dewey, D.D., On American Morals and Manners, (Boston: William Crosby, 1844), Harvard

University Library Digital Archives, Cambridge, Massachusetts, p. 5.20 Butler,American Gentleman, p. vi


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instructed instead to embody complex notions of morality, trust, and honest transparency.22

According to guidebooks, the American gentleman understood that out of rights grow duties,

and that with the privilege of individual freedom comes the need for personal accountability to

the larger community.23

Caught in tenuous political and economic evolutions, collective benefit

became popular tenant among etiquette guides. T.S. Arthur wrote of the American gentleman,

if in every action he have regard to the good of the whole, as well as to his own good . . . he will

not only secure his own well-being, but aid in the advancement towards a state of order.24

From

this perspective, extravagance and greed, for example, became just as offensive to middle-class

Americans as intoxication and vulgarity, because they withheld resources and usefulness from

the community. Rather, men were told to be bland and genial, reverent, conscientious, calm,

and firm, as well as to avoid risk-taking.25

Like morality, benevolence was intertwined into

etiquette with both religious and secular justifications. One guidebook stated, benevolence is

the basis [of good breeding], as selfishness is the bane of all true politeness. No Selfish man can

be a real gentleman.26 In addition to the perceived spiritual benefits, by sharing his resources

with the community, a man could increase his usefulness beyond his labor, improving the

collective potential and the probability of the republican experiment achieving lasting success, in

turn. The anonymous author ofThe Young Mans Own Booksummarized this collective

mentality concisely, stating, what good morals are to society in general, good manners are to

21

Wells,How to Behave, p. vii.22 Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process: The Hisotry of Manners, originally published in German in 1939,

trans. Edmund Jephcott, (New York: Urizen Books, 1978), p. 130; John Allen Murray, ed., George Washingtons

Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation, (New York: G. P. Putmans Sons, 1942), p.

10; both in Kasson,Rudeness and Civility, pp. 9, 13.23 Wells,How to Behave, p. 324 Arthur,Advice to Young Men, p. 178.25 Wells,How to Behave, pp. 42, 125; Arthur,Advice to Young Men, p. 131.26Book of Manners: A Guide to Social Intercourse, (New York: Carlton & Phillips, 1865) Google Books, web,

p. 10.


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particular ones; their band and security.27 The American gentleman, etiquette guides informed,

embodied an impeccable moral character that solidified his reputation as a trusted member of the

community.

A very real fear reflected in etiquette guides, is the fear that the republican experiment

might fail. The Constitution set into motion the first attempt at republican democracy since

Ancient Greece, and etiquette guide authors did not take this responsibility lightly. With such

large numbers of people moving to cities, corruption was seen as a threat to both the individual

and the nation. In The Art of Politeness, the author writes, in proportion as worldly pursuits

multiply, and competitions rise, ambition, jealousy, and envy combine with interest to excite bad

passions, and to increase the corruptions of the heart.28 Self-indulgence was feared to have a

corrupting influence that was a very real threat to Americans who saw themselves responsible for

the success the republican experiment. Illustrating the pressure felt by authors, Rev. Dewey

proclaimed, We have no desire to overrate the importance of this country; but it is undoubtedly

the great embodiment of the leading principle on which the history of the world is to turn for

many years to come.29 He followed with, It will be seen that the tree of freedom, planted on

this Western continent, has shot its roots and fibres through the whole of Europe.30

Kirkland

agreed, as she argued that, Wherever we go, we are looked upon as the representatives of the

principle of self-government and that, no step backwards is considered possible, even by the

most anxious conservative.31 In 1855, D. MacKillar wrote that his present is an age

remarkable for good reasoning and bad conduct, for sound rules and corrupt manners, when

27Young Mans Own Book, 186.28 D. MacKellar,A Treatise on the Art of Politeness, Good Breeding, and Manners: With Maxims and Moral

Reflections, (Detriot: George E. Pomeroy & Co., 1855), Internet Archive (archive.org), Ebook and Texts Archive,

University of TorontoRobarts Library Collection, San Francisco, California, p. 164.29 Dewey, On American Morals, p. 3.30 Dewey, On American Morals, p. 4.31 Kirkland, The Evening Book, pp. 106, 104.


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virtue fills our heads but vice our hearts . . . when independence of principle consists in having

no principle on which to depend; and free thinking not in thinking freely, but in being free from

thinking.32 Although the Revolution had shrugged off monarchical and aristocratic authority,

authors feared that without a disciplined citizenry, new oppressive hierarchies would emerge in

their place. Dewey wrote, if oppression makes a wise man mad, it often makes a whole people

worse than madunprincipled, immoral, and stupid or frivolous. Experiencing social mobility

for the first time, authors rightly feared that individual autonomy might run rampant, breeding an

immoral, selfish, and uneducated citizenry without concern for the protection of the rights of

others or respect for republican government. A citizenry of this caliber, they feared, would leave

the nation vulnerable to new systems of oppression.

Attempting to reach a malleable audience, mens etiquette guides during this period were

overwhelmingly written for young men still under the paternal roof. Remarking on the intended

purposes of an etiquette guide, the anonymous author ofMy Sons Bookwrote,

The young man who shall receive this volume as a present from his parent, is entreated to

read it carefully; to consider its precepts and principles deliberately, in the hour of calmretirement, when the voice of passion is hushed, and the seductions of pleasure are unfelt.

Let him bind its precepts and those of [the Bible], to his heart.33

In targeting dependent young men, authors attempted to mold the male reader into a self-

disciplined republican citizen before the immoral character of city life forever alter his mind.

The guidebook,Advice to Young Men on their Duties and Conduct in Life, stated bluntly, a

large proportion of our young men, as soon as they begin to think and act for themselves, seem to

32 MacKellar,A Treatise on the Art of Politeness, p. v.33My Sons Book, (New York: F.W. Bradley & Co., 1839), Michigan State University Library, Shaping the

Values of Youth, East Lansing, Michigan, pp. 9-10.


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have all ideas and ends merged in the one great pursuit of wealth for its own sake.34 The issue

identified here is much larger than the individual, however, and is rooted in the fear that extreme

economic and psychological independence will wear destructively on the cohesiveness of

society. By offering boys guidance while still in the home, guidebooks attempted to establish

early a collective worldview based on reverence, honesty, and deference, rather than one that is

obsessed with individual pursuits. Illustrating this point further, the author ofThe Young Mans

Own Bookargued that in cities there is a vast concourse of young men assembled from all parts

of the country, who come together as adventurers in the pursuit of affluence or pleasure, and

that these men come to give loose to evil propensities, which, in the country, and underthe

restraints of home, were kept in some subordination.35 Authors perceived the city as a place

where young men often fell susceptible to immoral behavior and irrational self-indulgence,

weakening the nations reserve of useful labor. Addressed to thosewhose moral character is yet

unfixed, the promotion of moral accountability, self-control, and collective success attempted to

serve as a counterbalance.36

The men that followed these guidebooks were searching for order, authority, and

community, and each author was happy to fill those roles. In order to give legitimacy to their

authority, etiquette guides relied upon descriptions of the disastrous consequences of immorality,

greed, and indolence. The author ofThe Young Mans Counsellorinformed his audience,

Indulge your appetites, gratify your passions, neglect your intellect, foster wrong principles,

cherish habits of idleness, vulgarity, dissipation, and in the after years of manhood you will reap

34 T.S. Arthur,Advice to Young Men on their Duties and Conduct in Life, (Boston: Phillips, Sampson, & Co.,

1850) Michigan State University Library, Shaping the Values of Youth, East Lansing, Michigan, p. 8.35Young Mans Own Book: a Manual of Politeness, Intellectual Improvement, and Moral Deportment,

Calculated to Form the Character on a Solid Basis and to Insure Respectability and Success in Life, (Philadelphia:

Key & Biddle, 1833), Google Books Digital Archive, web, p. 296.36 Charles Butler Esq., The American Gentleman, (Philadelphia, Hogan & Thompson, 1836), Google Books

Digital Archives, Web, p. 21.


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a plentiful crop of corruption, shame, degradation, and remorse.37 Various authors expressed

similar statements, reflecting common fears that unchecked individualism would lead to a

declining national character. One author wrote, whatever circumstances throw a large number

of young men into each others society, and where similar pursuits naturally lead to a

homogeneous character, temptations are forcible, and often fatally successful.38 Defying the

limits of their distribution, authors of etiquette guides attempted to address concerns of national

character and identity through the establishment of authority over a population whose morality

they deemed yet unfixed.39

Motivated by the fear of immoral individual actions leading to widespread corruption,

etiquette guides were not intended to teach young Americans how to act, but were, in fact,

teaching them who to be. The Reverend William Andrus Alcott clarified his message for the

readers of his text The Boys Guide to Usefulness, by stating, For your great object, in all that

you do, should be to know more, and to become better.40 The issues of morality, sincerity,

honesty, and personal growth travel much deeper than the surface-level discussions of pre-

nineteenth-century etiquette, and are continually emphasized in etiquette guides through the

common theme of self-control.

In addition to practicing disciplined self-control, the American gentleman was to be

quietly skeptical of all things around him, for temptation was everywhere and corruption

imminent. Readers of etiquette guides were instructed that city dwellers were a practised and

hardened crew, who have abandoned themselves to the indulgence of their passions, lie in

37 Rev. Daniel Wise, The Young Mans Counsellor: or, Sketches and Illustrations of the Duties and Dangers of

Young Men, (New York, Carlton & Phillips, 1853) Michigan State University Library, Shaping the Values of Youth,

East Lansing, Michigan, p. 16.38Young Mans Own Book, p. 296.39 Butler,American Gentleman, p. 21.


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ambush, to seize upon their victim and hurry him to ruin.41 This use of descriptive language,

commonly utilized amongst etiquette guide authors, presented corruptionboth in morals and

businessin a few interesting ways. Firstly, corruption is painted as a tangible force, as if

temptation was a corporeal enemy lurking in alleys, brothels, and bars. Secondly, these

descriptions tend to share a common distrust for the will of their young readers. Young

inexperienced readers learned that their first sin of self-indulgence would lead directly to their

eventual unraveling, and that everyman, no matter the quality of his character, could be mastered

by vice.

From the perspective of advice manuals, American cities were to be feared. While their

motivations may have been noble, the images they presented of city life focused solely on the

threats of vice and hypocrisy, offering no practical descriptions of how humans survive in an

urban environment. The largest fear reflected in etiquette guides was the fear of losing economic

autonomy. One author warned, to be secure, you must put yourself in no mans power; for if

you neglect your own interest, how can you complain of infidelity in others?42 A man who

allowed himself to be trapped by creditors or thieves casted aside his freedom, and with it, his

connection to society. The fear of the loss of financial freedom revolved around issues of trust

and honesty. Without the protection of trusted pre-established business networks, inexperienced

men knew that one bad character judgment could ruin their reputation, or worse, leave them at

the mercy of a dishonest con artist. Historian Karen Halttunen argues that confidence men were

feared because the object of the confidence mans game was thus not simply to corrupt the

40 William A. Alcott, The Boys Guide to Usefulness: Designed to Prepare the Way for the Young Mans

Guide, (Boston: Waite, Pierce, and Co., 1844) Assumption College. Nineteenth-Century Advice Literature,

Worchester, Massachusetts, p. 9841Young Mans Own Book, p. 296.42 Butler,American Gentleman, p. 157.


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youth, but to achieve total mastery over him.43 Although a mans reputation could dictate his

social position in the new fluid society, the controlling confidence man, through theft or

manipulation, threatened a mans freedom. These anxieties directly fueled the popularization of

the images of the confidence man and the controlled unemotional American gentleman, while

bolstering fears of vice, such as alcohol, gambling, prostitution, and vulgarityeach threatening

a loss of self-control in its own way. To be sure, vivid descriptions of the dangers of city life

would also have driven sales at a much faster rate than practical descriptions of urban

environments and commerce.

In teaching their readers to control the extremes of their personalities, etiquette

authorities attempted to quell their own anxieties over the potential for extremes of individualism

to create a fractured nation of selfish individuals. Navigating crowded cities in intimate

proximity with strangers, male readers learned to control their emotions and present a calm and

collected image at all times.44 In The Laws of Etiquette, an anonymously written 1836 etiquette

guide, the author contended that the image of the new ideal man, was that of one who, yielding

to others, still maintains his self-respect, and whose concessions to folly are controlled by good

sense; who remembers the value of trifles without forgetting the importance of duties, and

resolves so to regulate his conduct that neither others may be offended by his stiffness, nor

himself have to regret his levity.45

Connecting various subjects, the author summarized his

offerings in the manual by concluding that a respectable man illustrated control over pride,

embarrassment, idleness, and vanity at all times. Likewise, the 1839 handbook,Advice to a

Young Gentleman on Entering Society,specified, The true method of getting along in society

43 Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women, p. 5-6.44 Kasson,Rudeness & Civility, p. 115.45The Laws of Etiquette: or, Short Rules and Reflections for Conduct in Society, Philadelphia: Carey Lea &

Blanchard, 1839) Library of Congress,American Memory, Washington, D.C., p. 145.


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and in business, is to stave off all passionate and hostile feeling, whether of anger or scorn, and

never let it enter your bosom, whatever may be the provocation.46

The instinctual quality of

emotional responses was simply too volatile to be acceptable within the teetering Young

Republic. Without the leadership of an easily identified elite class, power, wealth, and authority

were obtainable by any Self-Made Man. Etiquette manuals provide sound evidence that authors

feared the instability of emotionally driven men holding positions of authority and expressed

their preference for a clear-headed logical citizenry. In a chaotic society of distrustful strangers,

men seeking to climb the social hierarchy into middle-class status were expected to solidify their

reputation as trustworthy businessmen by purging themselves of emotional responses through the

practices of discipline and sober industriousness.

Like excesses of emotion, men were also expected to trim the excesses of pleasure from

their lives. Republican men were tools for the national vision of self-government, and a man that

chased pleasure neglected his duties and rendered himself useless. My Sons Bookdiscussed the

balance between pleasure and duty, asserting that the Love of pleasure is undeniably one part of

our nature; but sense of duty, and concern for lasting happiness, are as evident and much more

important parts; yet we trample upon these, if we always follow that.47

A responsible

republican citizen spent his free time educating himself and interacting with his community, in

order to improve, in his own way, the character of the nation. In The American Gentleman,

Charles Butler wrote,

The strength of empire consists in the spirit of its members, and not altogether in itspossessions and pecuniary resources . . . Ignorance, avarice, and luxury, render men

indifferent under what form of government or in what state of society they live. They

superinduce a weakness and a meanness, which, for the sake of sensual gratification or

sordid interest, rejoice in submitting to the sceptre of tyranny.48

46Advice to a Young Gentleman, 135-136.47My Sons Book, 84.48 Butler,American Gentleman, p. 61.


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Although the Constitution and the booming market of free enterprise individualized societal

issuesin this case, ignorance, avarice and luxury, but gambling, prostitution, and drunkenness

should also be includedthe individual is told that the consequences of his actions reflected

upon the greater community, further solidifying his need for self-discipline. Even good men,

however, must always be on their guard. Vice, in its true light, is so deformed, that it shocks us

at first sight, and would hardly ever seduce us, if it did not, at first, wear a mask of some virtue,

one author wrote.49

Furthermore, young men were warned that, the wine cup is the foe of all

true politeness; that one little speck of blemish on [ones moral character] is fatal; and that

the man of pleasure is a negligent friend, father, and husband and entails poverty on his

unhappy descendants. . . . Mortgages, diseases, and settlements are the legacies a man of wit and

pleasure leaves to his family.50 With such stern warnings, etiquette guides hoped to convince

readers to practice abstinence in the matters of the perceived vices of the city, rather than

moderation. The risks to both the individual and the nation were simply too great.

Etiquette guides rarely neglected the discussion of vice. On the topic of vice, etiquette

authors relied on corporeal descriptions in order to present vices that appear menacing to young

readers. The Young Mans Bookperfectly illustrates this with the issues of gambling and

brothels. The author wrote that the gambling room is a place where the maddened sons of

strife, practiced in the arts of deception . . . hover like so many vultures, circling and scanning

their prey, until an opportunity enables them to swoop upon it, with the certainty of its

destruction.51 This descriptive message of absolute destruction is followed by a discussion of

the fate of those that visit a brothel. The author proclaimed, There is still another dark porch

49Book of Manners, pp. 153-15450Book of Manners, pp. 117, 170, 115.51The Young Mans Own Book, p. 302.


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practice better judgment over instinctual emotional responses in acts as miniscule as rising the

moment one wakes, without additional rest.58

Alcotts advice exemplified the perceived

consequences of a lack of social control. In the simple matter of waking promptly each morning,

Alcott went as faras to say, Start, then at once. The least delay is dangerous; it may be fatal.59

Furthermore, the extremes of his perception are apparent as he invoked the Bible to discuss the

consequences of idleness. Quoting Solomon, he argued I went by the fieldof the slothful says

he, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and lo! It was all grown over with

thorns: nettle had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall was broken down.60 While both

his guidelines for waking and for industriousness are fair, the repercussions are exaggerated.

Illuminating the perceived relationship between individual actions and collective success, Alcott

projected a concern larger than of individual efficiency, but of destruction to the foundations of

society. In this example, this concern is exemplified by the argument that a stone wall left

unattended will be decimated by some unidentified force. By making exaggerated emotional

arguments that presented the worst possible consequences of bad manners, Alcott attempted to

impose his own moral authority over his readers, and to persuade them to practice discipline and

emotional control in their own lives.

Etiquette guides also attempted to impose control over the population by establishing

markers that delineated new class distinctions. The new American middle-class man was

depicted as a perfectionist modeled in many ways after an adapted Puritan ideal. Young men

were instructed to pursue mental and moral purity, and to live faultlessly but without

58 William Andrus Alcott, The Young Mans Guide, (Boston: T.R. Marvin, 1846), Assumption College,

Nineteenth-Century Advice Literature, Worchester, Massachusetts, p. 62; Alcott, TheBoys Guide to Usefulness, p.

16.59 Alcott, The Boys Guide to Usefulness, p. 16.60 Alcott, The Boys Guide to Usefulness, p 49.


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extravagance.61 Manners and appearance presented important opportunities to teach the young

generation how to live a life of faultless propriety, perfect harmony and refined simplicity,

character traits the authors hoped to impose upon the new republic itself. At the same time as

ones appearance and manner were to be ignorant of blemish, it was important to avoid

extravagance in all matters. 62 Just as men were expected to rein in the extremes of their

emotions, they were also expected to limit the extremes of their dress and mannerisms. One

document argued, extravagance is the natural characteristic of poverty, and meanness of

wealth, while another warnedmen from being stamped a parvenu by symbolizing wealth and

status in elaborate attire and gestures.

63

In speaking on these matters, etiquette manuals

throughout the period worked to establish visual class distinctions separating the simple-yet-

flawlessly dressed honest middle-class male ideal, from the corrupt hypocrisy of the extravagant

nouveau riche and the immoral confidence man.

Likewise, men were defined and separated by their work ethic, for, as one manual

described, it is an alarming fact, that most wicked men, who have come to a miserable end,

began their career in idleness.64 Exemplifying the egalitarian views of the time,Advice to a

Young Gentleman Entering Society, advised young men to actively study those most well-refined

in appearance and character in order to learn how to overcome the failures and defeats he has

passed through to arrive at success. In this way, men were taught that everyone was fallible,

and that nothing but indolence and cowardice can keep you from being at the summit of

accomplishment.65

Throughout the array of manuals, indolence was consistently painted as

61 Alcott, The Young Mans Guide, p. 88.62The Laws of Etiquette, 30-31.63Advice to a Young Gentleman on Entering Society, (Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1839) Assumption

College,Nineteenth-Century Advice Literature, Worchester, Massachusetts, p. 186; The Laws of Etiquette, pp. 28,

33-34.64The Laws of Etiquette, p. 49.65Advice to a Young Gentleman, p. 81-82.


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effeminate, while the new American gentleman practiced an industriousness that reflected self-

discipline and civic responsibility, as no person possessing a sound mind in a healthy body, has

a right to live in this world without labor.66

In addition to creating new class distinctions, etiquette guides also established laws

rooted in perceptions of gender difference that worked to solidify a male-centered gender

hierarchy. Part of a mans work was to remain diligent in manner at all times, particularly in the

presence of women. Some manners that were socially acceptable in the company of menlike

wearing bootswere completely out of the question in the presence of women.67 Moreover,

despite the fact that young men were told to pursue educated and refined women, women of high

social status, or clever women who could conceal his faults, and supply his deficiencies,

women were often depicted in demeaning ways that denied them equal entry into the public

middle-class ideal.68 Blanket statements, such as, Talk to a mother about her children. Women

are never tired of hearing of themselves and their children, and women, however vain they

may be themselves, despise vanity in men, demonstrate the ability of etiquette guides to define

and clarify gender hierarchies, subjugating women by depicting them as embodying the

emotional traits young men were taught to control.

Lastly, reflecting the need for order in a tumultuous nation led by young men separated

from the moral authority of the familiar country community, guides instructed boys from a

young age to pursue a career as a controlled republican citizen, rather than an adventurous life

that mirrored the bowie knife wielding frontiersman, Daniel Boone. This goal was represented

both in the instruction etiquette guides offered, and the language they used. Wielding language

66 Alcott, The Young Mans Guide, p. 38.67The Laws of Etiquette, pp. 29-30.68Advice to a Young Gentleman, pp. 94, 76-77; Joseph Francis, The Young Mans Evening Book, (Francis, New

York: Charles S. Francis, 1838) Assumption College, Nineteenth-Century Advice Literature, excerpt, p. 50.


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associated with the frontier, phrases like the pioneers of wickedness appeared on occasion and

contrasted sharply with accounts of the manly spirit of forgiveness.69

Compounded with

instructions like, bravery has no occasion of vaunt itself, for it does not seek, like the knights of

old, for adventures, etiquette guides illustrated the authors disapproval for this less-civilized

image of independent American masculinity.70 Guidebooks reminded readers, however, that

deference was to be extended indiscriminately. Caroline Kirkland wrote, We may be amused at

the crude notions entertained by the rough backwoodsman on the subject of education, but we

ought to contemplate with serious regret the condition of those who, content with the merest

froth of learning and accomplishments, fancy themselves much higher in the intellectual scale

than their brethren of the forest.71 Although each American man was free to pursue the life he

desired and to become as unequal as his abilities allowed, the promotion of a conservative

character built upon moral deference helped forge collective bonds of community rather than

individualized conceptions of society.

Nineteenth-century etiquette guides were more than simple how-to manuals. Just as

they offered guidance to a generation of young men and women lost in the chaos of a new urban

setting overwhelmed by newcomers, they also worked to mold the Young Republic as they saw

fit. Through discussions of proper attire, industry, conversation, salutations, emotional control,

and social interactions, they sought to impose new hierarchies in order to protect the republican

experiment from being dismantled by dishonesty and immorality without the oversight of an

authoritative class. Given legitimacy by economic status, position within the clergy, or simply

69Young Mans Own Book, 296; Arthur,Advice to Young Men, p. 131.70 Arthur,Advice to Young Men, p. 131.


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by publication and the purchasing power of individuals in a free market, authors attempted to

define and control proper etiquette in order to enforce their own authority over the urban youth.

Although it is impossible to say whether these authors had a fully transparent understanding of

their motives, their methods manufactured standardized cultural images of men and women that

both defined a new middle-class ideal and dictated who was to be excluded.

Authors of etiquette guides between 1830 and 1860 used their works to address growing

anxieties over the lack social authority and cohesiveness. Although political and industrial

revolutions drastically altered the way Americans interacted with the government and the

marketplace, the study of etiquette guides reveals that authors were most concerned over the

social and cultural definitions of authority. In attempting to shape perceptions of the middle-

ideals, authors were attempting to fill an authority vacuum created by the egalitarian vision of the

Revolution. By imbedding morality into secular understandings of personal etiquette and

commerce, they attempted to impose an authority that resonated with the individualistic

tendencies of a populous experiencing social mobility for the first time. Fearing that the

egalitarian vision of the Revolution would be used to justify dangerous extremes of greed and

selfish self-indulgence, etiquette guide authors promoted moral judgement and self-

accountability in the pursuit of wealth and status. Concerns of lacking authority in republican

democracy were not unfounded, however, and are still grappled with in the American present.

Without market regulation or personal accountability to the collective success of the nation,

banks, corporations and Wall Street have, throughout American history, been allowed to pillage

71 Caroline Kirkland, The Evening Book or, Fireside Talk on Morals and Manners, with Sketches of Western

Life, (New York: Scribner, 1852), Indiana University Digital Library Project, Wright American Fiction 1851-1875,

Bloomington, Indiana, p. xi; Female authors were not uncommon, as etiquette guides for young women were just as

popular as those for men, and were often written by women. A large proportion of etiquette guides, both for women

and men, were written anonymously or under pseudonyms, however, so it is impossible to come to conclusions

regarding the ratios of female to male authors.


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the American economy in the pursuit of personal wealth and power. Etiquette guides, thus,

began the first popular debate pitting laissez-faire markets against regulation of the dangerous

excesses of democracy that have been at center of politics in the United States ever since. The

solutions proposed by etiquette guides failed, however, because wealthy and powerful

Americans have consistently proven that their accountability to the collective community ends at

the boundaries of government regulation.


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Mans Guide. Boston: Waite, Pierce, and Co., 1844. Assumption College.Nineteenth-Century Advice Literature. Worchester, Massachusetts.

The Young Mans Guide. Boston: T.R. Marvin, 1846. Assumption College.Nineteenth-

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Documents

History 209 Final v3