During the latter part of his 1861–1862 journey through the United States Trollope observes wartime Washington, the workings of Congress, and the political and social causes of the Civil War before traveling west through St. Louis and Missouri and visiting Cairo and camps of the Union army, where he records the practical effects of the conflict on American society and everyday life, and after returning east he turns from travel narrative toward a broader examination of the United States Constitution, the federal government, courts and lawyers, national finances, and the postal system, frequently comparing American institutions with those of Britain while judging both the strengths and weaknesses of democratic government, and he concludes with reflections on American hotels, literature, national character, and the country’s future, admiring its energy, freedom, and rapid development while remaining critical of the political instability, social contradictions, and wartime pressures that expose the limits as well as the possibilities of American democracy.
