The resources of the United States of America; or, A view of the agricultural, commercial, manufacturing, financial, political, literary, moral and religious capacity and character of the American people

Front matter

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Qass Book

Table Of Contents

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DEDICATION. — Advertisement — general conviction of the United States, in 1809, that France would conquer England, v. — that conviction opposed by the author then, ibid. — intention, at that time, to give a view of the United States, vi. — Mr. Pitkin's Statistics, vii. — plan of the present work, ibid.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

Chapter I

TERRITORY, AGRICULTURE, POPULATION, AJVD JVAVIGABLE CAPACITY OF THE UNITED STATES.

Territorial aspect of the United States, 11 — population of the United States, and other countries, 15 — rapid growth of the United States, 17 — of New-York, Baltimore, Kentucky, New-Orleans, 18 — foreign emigrants, 20 — salubrity of the United States, 21 — population of the United States ; how raised and distributed, 22 — Virginia population, 23— agriculture of the United States, 24 — navigable capacities of the United States, 25 — canals may connect the whole union, ibid. — their importance, 26 — power of Congress to make them, 27 — the Alleghany mountains and their rivers^ 28 — communications between the Atlantic rivers, the St. Lawrence, and the Lakes, 32 — the New-York canal, 33 — its importance, 34 — territorial capacities of the United States, 35 — works thereon, 36.

* CHAPTER II.

COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES.

Anti-commercial theory, 37 — its folly and mischief, 38 — aggregate colnmerce of the world ; of the United States ; of Britain, 39 —

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their commprcial distress, 40 — peculiar advantages of the United States, 40 — their exports 41— imports, 42 — home and foreign trade, 43 — tonnage, 44 — tonnage of Britain, France, and other nations, 45 — United States coasting trade, and 7iavy, ibid. — emancipation of Spanisk America, 4G — its importance to Britain ; to the United States, 47 — junction of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 48 — negotiations with Britain and President Adams for emancipating Spanish America, 49 — necessity of exertion on the part of Britain, 50.

CHAPTER III. J\IAmJFACTURES OF THE UKITED STATES

Connexion between agriculture and manufactures, 52 — folly of forcing manufactures, 53 — their condition in the United States, 55 — efforts to establish their monopoly, 56 — its evil, 57 — mechanical skill of the United States, 58— their chief manufictures ; amount, quality, and value, 59 — in the different States, 61 — and in peculiar places, as Patterson, Philadelphia, 62 — Wilmington, Pittsburg, 63 — steamboats, 65— Fulton, ihid.

CHAPTER IV. FIJfAMVES OF THE UJ^ITED STATES

Necessity of internal taxation, 67 — United States taxes established, destroyed, 68 — mistaken economy of the United States, 69 — standing army of the United States ; of Britain, 70 — importance of taxation, and moneyed institutions, 71 — national debt of the United States, 72 — loans of last war, 73 — sinking fund, 74 — revenue of the United States, 75 — customs, duties, &c. 76 — internal taxes, 81 ■ — their apportionment, 82 — United States property in land, slaves, &c. 83 — its rapid increase. Bo— public lands, 86 — finances of the United Slates for 1317, 88 — aggregate of the United States capital, income, and expenditure, 89 — do. of Britain ; her deficit, 90 — do. of France, and other powers, 94 — purchase of /Vor/t/a, 95 — contrast between the energy of the United States and supineness of Britain, 96 — importance of Cuba to Britain, 97— feverish state of Europe, ibid. — preponderance of Russia, ibid. — Holy League, 98— combination of Europe and the United States against Britain, 98.

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CHAPTER V. GOVER^rj^IEJ^'T, POLICY, AXD LAWS OF THE UmTED STATES

United States governments all elective, 99 — importance of political economy, ibid. — characteristic differences between ancient and modern governments, 100 — best works on political philosophy, 106 — mischief of monopo/ies, whether mercantile, or manufacturing, or agricultural, 108 — the essentials of a good government, 109 — national sovereignty of the United States, 111 — advantages of a zoritten Constitution, 112 — importance of studying ^mencan polity, 113 — relation of General and State governments, 114 — their probable duration, 114— Barbe de Marbois, 115 — G. Morris, ibid. — Federal Constitution of the United States ; its powers and representatives, 116 — evils of frequent elections, 117 — of voting by ballot, 120 — of universal suffrage, 121 — of qualifications in the elected, ibid. — of disfranchising the clergy, 122 — Senators of the United States; how appointed, 123 — importance of a durable Senate, 124 —evils of excluding cabinet officers from the Legislature, 130 — of under paying the public servants, 132 — executive negative, 134 — money bills, 137 — general powers of congress, 138 — evils of the present location of the seat of the Federal Government, 139 — slave system in the United States, 148 — in the world, 149 — abolition of the slave trade by the United States, 150 — evils of slavery, 151 — slaves burned alive in the United States, 152 — attempt in the United States to colonize free blacks, 153 — best writers on the United States government and policy, 156 — papers of General Hamilton, 158 — powers of the United States Executive, 159— President ; Vice-President; 160— how chosen, 161 — Qv'ih of caucus, ibid. — joint powers of Executive and Senate, 165 — evils of multitudinous executive in the States generally, and particularly in New- York, 1G7 — executive power of pardoning ; its importance, 172 — abused in the United States, 174 — Judicial powers of the United States, 175 — evils of cashiering Judges at sixty, 177 — requisites of independence in judiciary, 178 — their dependence in many of the States, 100 — power of American judiciary over legislative Acts, 183 — which not known in any other country, 184 — usurpation of Georgia Legislature over the judiciary, 187 — importance of such power in the judiciary, 107 — diversity of laws in the United States ; its evil ; 190 — crime committed in one State not punishable in another, 193 —

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duelling; General Hamilton and his son, 194 — importance of uniform laws in the United States, 195 — miscellaneous powers of Congress, 196 — amendments of the Federal Constitution, 197 — hovr made, 199 — unsuccessful attempts to make, 201 — by Senator Hillhouse, ibid. — the Hartford Convention, 202 — General Hamilton'! plan of the United States Constitution, 203— paper constitutions, 206 — necessity of a vigorous administration of the Federal Government, 207 — Presidents AVashington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, 208 — effects of the Washington administration on the United States, 209 — duty of a wise government to exclude foreigners from all political privileges, 210 — necessity of preserving and strengthening the federal Union, 211 — evils of its disruption, 213 — all nea; governments weak ; instanced in Britain and the United Stixtes, 215 — general government of the Unitgd States too weak in itself, 217 — its probable career, 210 — chief characteristics of American institutions, 220 — population of the United States better, their government weaker, than those of Europe, 221 — chief defects in all governments, ancient and modern, 222 — peculiar adaptation of tlie United States government to its people, 225 — Mr. Jay's parallel between European and American governments, 226 — general course of all free governments, 228 — superior physical, intellectual, and moral qualities of the American people, 229 — increased power of the people, all over the world, 230 — Emperor Alexander, 231 — M. Talleyrand, 232— relative importance of the United States, eastern and western sections, 233 — probable consequences of western predominance, 234 — general conviction, in the United States, of superiority of American to the British people, 235 — the great question at issue between American and European governments, 236 — Resources of the United States relatively greater than those of Britain, 237 — the revolutionary question supported by the United States and Continental Europe, against England, 241 — its probable result, 242— danger of British Colonies, particularly Canada ; its maladministration, 243 — Cuba once offered to Mr. Jefferson, 245 — .•Spanish American Colonies must fall to the United States, whom Britain cannot conciliate, 246 — Vienna Treaty, 247 — Holy League, ibid. — United States more formidable to Britain than Russia, 240 — Mr. Jackson's (the British Ambassador to the United States,) opinion of the American people, 249 — their capacity and character, ifi peace and war, 250— po//t/ca/ parties in the United States, 251—

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their views and objects, ibid. — home policy of the United States, 252 —their skilful diplomacy, 2 52— its importance, 253— skilful diplomacy of France and Russia contrasted with the diplomatic blunders of England, 254— origin and progress of the anned neutrality, from 1754 to 1815, 259 — causes of England's unskilful diplomacy, 2G5 — her intrinsic home power, 267— Mr. Jefferson's prophecy concerning her, in 1782, 269— LAWS of the United States and the world generally, 270— their study most important, 271— necessity of Lectures on, in the United States, 273— effect of the study of law on the human understanding, 275— Mr. Burke, 276— Mr. Canning, 277— author of Pursuits of Literature, 278— Lord Thurlow, Lord Kenyon, Lord Bacon, 279— superiority of the common to the civil law, 283— its prevalence in the United States, 284— outline of legal study, 285— some defects in the juridical system of America, 286— no remedy against the United States or a separate State, 286— bad

iiisolvent laws, 287— lower law-officers badly appointed, ibid.

usury, 26trf.— poor-laws, 288— New-York Sunday School Union, ihid. — defects oi New-York Constitution, 292 — necessity of amending New-York Constitution, ibid. — its Court of Errors, &c. 293

no Bar, in a free country, can be overstocked, 294— lawyers govern the United States, ibid.-^-ihe American Bar averages a greater amount of talent than the British, 295— characteristics of American and British eloquence ; of ancient and modern speakin"-, 297— of American and British law-reporters, 302 — English crown lawyers and New- York lawyers, 303.

CHAPTER VI. OX THE LITERATURE OF THE UjYITED STATES

" The United States and England," 304— Mr. Southey ; Editors of the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, 305— United States tinderrated in Europe, 306— Franklin's refutation of the French theory,

307— cawses of the United States literature being defective, 308

no want of American genius, 309— general course of readers and writers in the United States, 310— <oo early practical life in the United States, 313— periodical publications, 314— perpetual change, 315— necessity of an original Review in the United States, 316— elementary education in the United States ; in Britain, 319— saying of George the Third, titi— Greeks and Trojans in the United States,

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320 — importance of universal education, ibid — liberal education de« fecfive in the United States, 321 — grammar-schools, 322 — grammar decried in the United States, 323— its defence, 32i— -colleges in the United States, 327 — want of .Lectures in the United States, 328— education injured by clerical monopoly, 329 — elocution in the United States vitious and nasal, 331 — pronunciation of English, Greek, and Latin tongues, 336— formal duhiess a bad qualitication for a professor, 339 — importance of enthusiasm in a teacher, 340 — outline of Lectures on Belles Lettres and Rhetoric, and on Moral Philoso phy, 341 — gradational studies, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, classics, 343 — outline of liberal education in England, 345 — in Scotland, 347 — importance of composition in prose and verse, 349 — neglect of general literature in United States professions, 350 — its importance to all professional men, 351— prosody universally murdered in the United States, 352 — United States writers, 353 — history, 354— novels, ibid — poetry, 355 — Marshal's Washington, 356 — periodical works, 357— M'Fingal, 358 — Mr. Wirt ; Fisher Ames,

359 Colden's Fulton, 3G0 — Mr. Walsh, 361 — medical science in

the United States, 363 — Fine Arts, 364 — remedies proposed for literary deficiencies of the United States, 365 — learned societies in the United States, 367 — Governor Clinton, 368 — importance of a National University in the United States, 369— female education in the United States, 371— Mr. Griscom, ibid— Miss H. More, 372.

CHAPTER Vir.

OJV THE HABITS, MJiXJ^ERS, AJ^D CHARACTER OF THE UMTTED STATES.

General ignorance o{ foreigners, particularly the British, respecting the character of the United Slates, 374.— causes of that ignorance, 375 — M. Talleyrand's notions of the American cliaracter, ibid. — national gratitude, what, 376 — basis of the United States character, 377 — identity of language, 378 — United States national loyalty, 300 — M. Talleyrand mistaken as to the American character, 381 — course of colonial settlements, 384 — United States; /loa; settled and peopled, 385 — foreign emigrations to the United States ; Irish colony ; French establishment, 387— s/arcs, their number and effect in the United States, 388 — religion the basis of all nationid '"haracter, and gague of all national prosperity, 392 — serious chasnf)S

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of religious ordinances in the United States, 394 — infidelity in the United States, 394 — Virginia ; Louisiana, 395 — necessity of religion to human communities, 396 — experiment of national infidelity made in Europe, 397 — the three eras of paganism, superstition, and infidelity, in the history of the world, and their gradational effects upon mankind, 398 — infidelity alhed with the revolutionary question, exemplified in France and England, 403 — United States calmness in religion, 405 — Dr. Priestley, 407 — no national church in the United States ; of whose population one-third without any religious ordinances, 408 — evils of exclusive State religion, 409 — of tithes, 410 — spirit of the age ; Archbishop Laud ; Lord Clarendon, 411 — prevailing sects in the United States ; their church government, 412 — American clergy, 413 — collegiate churches, 414 — religion and hypocrisy are substance and shadow, ibid. — Sunday Schools, Missionary and Bible Societies in the United States, 415 — study of S. S. 416 — Owen's History of British and Foreign Bible Society, 417 — morals and manners of the United States, 419 — New-England, 420 — Middle States, 422 — Southern States, 423 — American ajomera, ihid. — slave population deteriorates morals, 424 — caged slave in Virginia, 426 — Western States, 426 — Americans locomotive and migratory, 427 — western settlers, 428 — general manners of the United States, 430 — physical activity and strength of American population, 433 — their intellectual shrewdness, 434 — and political elevation, ibid. — superior, in mass, to all other people, 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 — 7nanners of the United States ; M. Volney's notion, 443 — the real state of the fact, 444 — general 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, 450 — 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, scholars, servants, 469 — national vanity

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of the United States, 460— means of rendering the United States the greatest nation in the world, 461.

Conclusion

PRESEJ^T STATE OF EUROPE.

Necessity of vigorous administration of our Federal Government, 462 — state of France, ibid. — clergy ; nobility, 463 — representation and revolution, 464 — balance ofpozver deranged, ibid. — Prussia, ibid. — Austria, 465 — Spain; her capacity and condition, 466 — her general ignorance, 467 — governed by foreigners, 468 — her constitution of 1812, 469 — return of Ferdinand, ibid. — intrinsic power of France, 470 — hercontra-indications, 471 — preponderance of Russia y 474 — her steady ambition, 475 — her portentous progress, 476 — Sir Robert Wilson, 477 — radical difference between American and European governments, ibid. — defects of all free governments, 478 — intrinsic power of England, 479 — shattered by the French revolution, ibid. — British Constitution, 480 — United States Constitution,

482 — European governments either military or commercial, 483

defects of English administration ; home, foreign, and colonial, 484 — her employment of national talent, 486 — her growth during the last three centuries, 488 — duration of national power and talent, 489 — Chatham ; Pitt ; Castlereagh ; Canning, 492 — her present condition, 493 — death of her lineal princess, 495 — necessity of the United States to augment their national strength and general government, 496 — their recent destruction of internal revenue, and occupation of Amelia Island, 497 — treasury documents for 1817, 499 — rates of pay to public officers in the United States, 501 — memoranda of mutation and variety, 502 — British revenue and expenditure for 1818, 504 — abolition of the slave trade by Spain and Portugal, 605— -war between the United States apd Spain, ibid.

THE

RESOURCES

OF THE

UNITED STATES, &c.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

Importance of the United States — Misrepresentations of Travellers^ SCc,

J. HE 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 well-being 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

2 RESOURCES OI-' THE UNITED STATES.

no distant period, a great and powerful nation, influencing 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 donnnion ; 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 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 moie i\\di\-\ fi ft ij thousand mWes of internal ship and boat navigation. It contains two thousand miles ol lake ; one //iOM,saw(/ 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, 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.

IVlany 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-

4 RESOURSES OF THE UNITED STATES.

cess in this country ; or, from a very slight and superficial view of what they did not understand, and under' the guidance of that self-suflicient malignity, which is the inseparahle concomitant of dulness and ignorance, and measuring every thing they saw here by the habits and manners of the people in their own country, and resolutely condemning whatsoever differed from the standard to which they themselves had been accustomed ; without ever once reflecting upon the very different states of society which must, necessarily, take place in an old, long-established, and fully peopled country, and in one which labours under all the peculiar circumstances of national infancy — a thin, and a scattered population over an immense extent of territory, the unfinished condition of its social habits, the fluctuation of its political institutions, the uncertainty of its popular movements — have taken upon themselves to represent these United States as cursed with a barren and inhospitable soil ; an ungenial and dreary clime ; a government, full of weakness, fraud, and violence ; a people, made up and compounded of the sweepings and refuse of Europe — " the taint of anarchy, and the blast of crime," — fickle and turbulent in their politics, rude and coarse in their behaviour, and steeped in all the vulgar brutality of vice and faction.

Gilbert Imlay^ and M. St. John de Crevecoenr, author of " The American Farmer," and of pretended " Travels in Upper Pennsylvania and the State of INew-York," have exceedingly exaggerated the excellencies of the United States, by representing them as the abode of 7nore than all the perfection of innocence, happiness, plentv, learning, and wisdom, than cmi be allotted to human beings to enjoy. A far greater number of writers, however, have outraged decency, by loading the Ameiican people with abuse and calumny. Among the vilest and the silliest of these, are Parkinson.^ an En_:;lish fanner; ^i/ic, a W-t/m/^/ military officer; and one Jansen^ a non-descript.

These writers, as appears from their own confession, never herded with any other companions than the lower classes of society in the union — such as stage-drivers, masters of sloops, keepers of ale-houses, low mechanics, retail tradesmen, and labouring peasants. It is not, indeed, pretended by any of the advocates of American character and claims, that among these classes of the community can be discovered any very great refinement of breeding — or any very extensive information — or any very profound reflection.

Another set of travellers in this country, have come hither with letters of introduction to some very respectable gentiemen in the United States; and, in consequence, have been received into their families, and the families of their friends and acquaintance ; and, in every instance, have been treated with hospitality and kindness. These men have gone away to Europe, and published anecdotes of private families, have given to the world accounts of mere domestic incidents, such as could only have been imparted in the moments of unsuspecting confidence ; and the relation of which can serve no other purpose, than to sadden the heart of those who have been betrayed, and stamp, in characters of lasting infamy, the baseness of the being who could thus drag into painful notice individuals wishing to pass their lives in the privacy of cultivated retirement, occasionally diversified by the more select intercourse of the social circle.

On the heio;ht of this bad eminence stand the Marquis de Chastilleux, and the Duke de la RouchefaucauH Liancovrt, who have repaid the kindness of American hospitality, by descanting on the vulgarity of American manners, and by detailing to the world occurrences and conversations which they could never have known, had they not, unfortunately, been mistaken for gentlemen by those whose civilities and confidence they thus abused. But, surely, private individuals, who do not obtrude themselves upon the public, but rather shun the eye of vulgar observation, are not fit subjects for a traveller's merriment, or satire. In a world, bursting with vice and folly, there are always knaves and coxcombs, in sufficient number, to exhaust all the powers

^ RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES.

of ridicule and invective ; and these are the only legitimate objects, against which the laugh of the wit, and the declamation of the morahst, ou^ht to be directed.

The well-known poet, iMr. Thomas Moore, when quite a young man, published a book, made up of prose and verse, in which he, very unmercifully, aoused and misrepresented the people of this country. Some Httle time since, however, he addressed a letter to Mr. John E. Hall, the editor of the Port-Folio, in Philadelphia, in which he expresses his deep repentance for having slandered America, and swings into the opposite extreme of unmeasured praise, representing it, now^ as the only land where freedom, and happiness, and so forth, are to be found.

It would, indeed, be superfluous to descant upon the credulity of Mr. Weld^ who, in enumerating the perilous wild beasts of this country, gravely asserts, and, as he says, upon the authority of General Washington, that the moschetlo of the United States is so terrible in its attacks as to bite through the thickest boot. Now, the moschetto, which is a species of gnat^ is no more troublesome or offensive here., than the gnats are in the fens of Lincolnshire, or the lowlands ol Essex, in England. Besides, General Washington merely told Air. Weld, that the moschetto will bite through the thickest stockings above the boot-top, when there is any space between the boot and the knee-band. But Mr. Weld has substituted the word boot {or stocking ; and thus, very reasonably alarmed all cautious people with a tale of terror, respecting the dreadful ravages of the moschetto tribe of North America, upon the human body.

Still more insufferable would it be to dwell upon the meagre, miserable trash, that is occasionally foisted into the Monthly Magazine., of London, under the signature of a little obstetrical Quixote, at Alexandria, in the District of Columbia; and, by a singular misnomer, called " Information as to the United States."

But the character of ^/. Brissot de Warville., the leader of the Gironde revolutionary faction in France, is too notorious to permit his observations on the United

States to be passed over in silence. In a printed book of his, on the commerce of this country, he very profusely praises the Americans, and calls himself a Quaker. Brissot had led a very wandering life, and had written an incredible number of books on politics — none of which were over-wise. He had been a subaltern in the police, under the old French monarchy, and had been sent to London on some service, in the line of his vocation, by the lieutenant of police in Paris. The revolution in France, of course, raised him to the level of his merit, and he became the doer of a newspaper — an office of high importance in all revolutionary societies. He was, however, a better disorganizer than philosopher : for, in a manuscript volume of his, now, or lately in the city of Philadelphia, in the hands of some elderly Friends, or Quakers, to whom he sent it for the express purpose of being published in this country, (a step which his more prudent correspondents declined,) he solemnly maintains that the character of the American people can always be known, infallibly, by the course of the rivers throughout the union.