can population, 433---their intellectual shrewdness, 434---and political elevation, ibid---superior, in mass, to all other peo- ple, 435---United States navy, ibid---drawbacks on United States morals; lotteries; state-prisons; insolvent laws, 436--- poor-laws, 437-immoderate drinking, ibid-United States people charitable; munificence of Boston, 438-pauperism and profligacy of New-York, 439 manners of the United States; M. Volney's notion, 443-the real state of the fact, 444-gene- ral aspect of American society, 445-travelling in the United States, 446-gradational cleanliness in the western, southern, middle, and eastern divisions, 448-universal use of tobacco, in smoking and chewing, in the United States, 450-United States amusements, ibid-marriages, 451-efficient population of the United States, 453-universal trading spirit in the United States, 455-how profited by British capital in credit and insolvencies, ibid-extravagance general in the United States, 456-Descartes and Dutch Stadtholder, 457-no family wealth, 458--nor social subordination in children, scho- lars, servants, 459-national vanity of the United States, 460 -means of rendering the United States the greatest nation in PRESENT STATE OF EUROPE. Necessity of vigorous administration of our Federal Govern- ment, 462-state of France, ibid-clergy; nobility, 463-repre- sentation and revolution, 464-balance of power deranged, ibid-Prussia, ibid-Austria, 465-Spain; her capacity and condition, 466-her general ignorance, 467-governed by fo- reigners, 468-her constitution of 1812, 469-return of Ferdi- nand, ibid-intrinsic power of France, 470-her contra-indica- tions, 471-preponderance of Russia, 474-her steady ambi- tion, 475--her portentous progress, 476--Sir Robert Wilson, 477-radical difference between American and European governments, ibid-defects of all free governments, 473-in- lution, ibid-British Constitution, 480-United States Consti- tution, 482-European governments either military or com- mercial, 483-defects of English administration; home, fo- reign, and colonial, 484-her employment of national talent, 486-her growth during the last three centuries, 487- duration of national power and talent, 488-Chatham; Pitt; Castle- reagh; Canning, 491-her present condition, 492-death of her lineal princess, 494-necessity of the United States to aug- their recent destruction of internal revenue, and occupation of AMERICA, AND HER RESOURCES. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. Importance of the United States.-Misrepresentations of Travellers, &c. THE resources and character, the present power, and future prospects, of the United States, are very imperfectly appreciated or understood by the nations of Europe. Nay, one of the great British critics has recently informed us, that the Americans themselves have not yet told their own story well; nor sufficiently directed their mind towards fathoming the capabilities of their own country. To ascertain and exhibit the resources of this extended and rapidly-rising empire, is worthy the attention of every one who feels a deep interest in the wellbeing of the republic. Indeed, no object can be presented more worthy of the contemplation of all the nations of the globe, than the growing capacities of a commonwealth which has borne itself triumphantly through two severe and bloody conflicts, against the most fearful odds; and run a career of peace, unexampled in enterprise and prosperity throughout the history of the world. Humanly speaking, no circumstances can prevent these United States from becoming, eventually, and at no distant period, a great and powerful nation, in fluencing and controlling the other sovereignties of the world;-seeing that they are secure from the dread of powerful neighbours; that they are not composed of detached and distant territories; but that one connected, fertile, wide-spreading country is the goodly heritage of their dominion; that they are blessed with a vast variety of soils and productions, and are watered with innumerable streams for the delight and accommodation of their inhabitants; that a succession of navigable rivers forms an ocean-chain around their borders, to bind them together; while the most capacious waters, running at convenient distances, present them with so many highways for the mutual transportation and exchange of all their various commercial commodities, both rude and manufactured; and also for the easy communication of all friendly aids, political and military. In addition to the Atlantic States, exhibiting upwards of two thousand miles of sea-coast, with innumerable bays, creeks, rivers, ports, and harbours, and covering a surface of nearly one million of square miles, displaying every variety of soil and produce,-a new empire has suddenly sprung up within the bosom of the union, like an exhalation from the earth. I mean that immense region called the Western Country; bounded on the north by the great lakes Erie, Huron, and Superior, and the chain of waters between the Grand Portage and the Lake of the Woods; on the west by the Rocky Mountains; on the south by the Gulf of Mexico; on the east by the Alleghany Hills; comprising full fifteen hundred thousand square miles, and more than fifty thousand miles of internal ship and boat navigation. It contains two thousand miles of lake; one thousand miles of gulf; and one hundred thousand miles of river coast. The whole country is one continued intersection of rivers, communicating with each other. These vast territorial domains are held by a population, free as the air they breathe-a population, powerful in physical activity and strength; patient of toil, MISREPRESENTATIONS OF TRAVELLERS, 3 and prodigal of life; brave, enterprising, intelligent, and persevering; presenting, both in body and in mind, the noblest materials for the formation of national greatness, prosperity, and influence. There are many and obvious reasons why the nations of Europe are unacquainted with the resources and character of the United States; which present institutions political and social, altogether unique, and unparalleled in the annals of humankind. It is sufficient merely to mention one very broad source of European ignorance, with respect to this country; namely, the opposite, but equally erroneous views which the various travellers from Europe have given of the American Republic. By far the greater portion of these writers have fallen into the vitious extreme of unbounded praise, or of indiscriminate censure. Many persons, frustrated in their pernicious hopes at home, and sometimes smarting from the recent scourge; men who have been arraigned at the bar of justice in their own land, as traitors and felons, and have exchanged the well-merited gallows for an ignominious exile, have generally depicted this country as the seat of uncontaminated purity, and uninterrupted happiness. If we may believe the assertions of these political philosophers, the soil every where teems with spontaneous plenty; the air is balmy and fragrant; the soft delights of perpetual spring dwell upon the land the form of government, as it is written down upon paper, and appears in a printed book, is the model of all human perfection; the rulers are, of necessity, all virtue, wisdom, and strength; and the people, who elect, and from the midst of whom are elected these rulers, are, invariably, all incorruptible in their political integrity, pure in their personal conduct, simple and refined in their social manners. Vice knows no habitation here; and Paradise is again restored on earth, as it existed, in all the bloom of innocence and love, before the fall of our primeval parents. Another set of writers, either rankling under the disappointment of their too sanguine expectations of sue |