synonymous; but not between radical and conservative, between outmost
Whig and inmost Tory exist more opposite extremes than between these
great rival political parties of the United States. As a drop of
sea-water possesses the properties of the entire water of the ocean, so
these units of American political controversy were microscopic
representatives of their respective parties. It was curious to remark what
a prominent part their religious convictions played in the war of words.
The republican was a member of the Baptist congregation; the democrat held
opinions not very easy of description, something of a universalist and
semi-unitarian tendency; these opinions became frequently intermixed with
their political jargon, forming that curious combination of ideas which
to unaccustomed ears sounds slightly blasphemous. I recollect a very
earnest American once saying that he considered all religious, political,
social, and historical teaching should be reduced to three subjects: the
Sermon on the Mount, the Declaration of American Independence, and the
Chicago Republican Platform of 1860.

On the present occasion the Massachusetts man was a person whose nerves
were as weak as his political convictions were strong, and the democrat
being equally gifted with strong opinions, strong nerves, and a tendency
towards strong waters, was enabled, particularly after dinner, to obtain
an easy victory over his less powerfully gifted antagonist. In fact it
was to the weakness of the latter's nervous system that we were indebted
for the pleasure of his society on board. Eight weeks before he had been
ordered by his medical adviser to leave his wife and office in the little
village of Hyde Park to seek change and relaxation on the continent of
Europe. He was now returning to his native land filled, he informed us,
with the gloomiest forebodings. He had a very powerful presentiment that
we were never to see the shores of America. By what agency our
destruction was to be accomplished he did not enlighten us, but the ship