The condition of religious liberty, compared with that of other countries, is the most favourable on the records of history, under the federal constitution. It is equally favourable under the constitutions of most of the states ; and there is very little to amend, on this subject, in those states, whose constitutions are not perfectly fa vourable. The condition of things, on this subject, in actual practice, under the existing laws, is very gene rally sound and unexceptionable ; and though there ap pears occasionally a little to correct, yet upon the whole, this all-important department of human affairs is an nually tending towards greater practical perfection. In this most curious and most interesting state of the reli gious and ecclesiastical affairs of a numerous, diversi fied, and free people, it is a highly comfortable truth, that general morality, and particularly those parts of the great moral field, which include the precious institutions of education and humanity, steadily improve. The seeds of religious knowledge must be of the right kinds,— they must be sown in a fit soil, since they are cast upon it with a free hand, and bring forth good and increasing fruits, through a series of harvests. To dispense and to receive the blessings of an unshackled conscience, well informed, fits our species for its highest destinies, in the two worlds.
It is on the rock of religious liberty, which lies as a broad and deep substratum, under the United States of America, that their civil liberties are happily founded. Hence we find, that the rules and morality of religion have been the principal instruments opposed to the con tinuance of the trade in slaves. These have been aided by considerations of sound policy, and man can no longer enter into the American territory, in a state of enslave ment. The wide and horrible ruin, which would inevi tably follow the emancipation of the whole of the co loured people in the United States, will be candidly considered by those at home who are unconnected with this description of persons, and by those abroad, who turn their minds towards our situation and our conduct. The system of gradually abolishing slavery, wherever it is safe to do so, has reduced the number of slaves, in the states lying north of Delaware and Maryland, to a pro portion of less than one person in every hundred. In those two states, the business of abolition constantly proceeds ; and in the more southern states, where the attempt would draw down awful miseries upon the blacks, as well as on the whites, the condition of the slaves is really and steadily ameliorating, while their constant diffusion among more numerous whites is in creasing the safety of measures of emancipation.
It is this religion also, which successfully teaches us no longer to maledict, to oppress, or to beguile of their lands, the untutored Indians, who live on our extended borders. American justice authorizes the Indians to dispose of their property without any coercion or limita tion of price. Like the white natives on the British and American sections of our ancient empire, they can not sell at common law, to any alien. The process of mitigating the ferocity of the Indians by civilization is a constant object of public attention. The rights of con science are secured to the Africans and to the American Ind fans.
With the momentary exceptions of these coloured races, circumstanced as we see they are at this time, constitutional liberty is extended to all the people of the United States. An equality of rights is universally enjoyed, except in the cases of paupers and of certain elections ; such as those of the governors of some of the states. The rights to own and bear arms, to fish and to hunt in waters and on land which do not belong to others, to erect schools and places of divine worship, to pursue every occupation and profession, to manufac ture, deal in and export all things, to hold and elect to office, belong to all.
There were in the year 1807, seventy-nine universi ties, colleges, and academies within the United States ; and many others have been since established. The private schools are almost innumerable ; and measures for extending the useful and elegant instruction of the rising generation, male and female, are steadily pursued.
The militia of the United States embraces all the free white males of the proper ages, and exceeds, in number, twelve hundred thousand. It is the army of the constitution. They have all the right, even in pro found peace, to purchase, keep and use arms of every description. Provisions to a great extent are made by such purchases, and by the exertions of the federal, state, and territorial governments. It may be conve nient to state in this place, that the whole population will probably exceed seven millions and six hundred thousand persons in the second quarter of the year 1812.
The seamen of the United States were computed in the year 1807 at 70,000 persons. The tonnage of the decked vessels was about 1,000,000 in the same year. The value of the imports was 107,000,000 dollars, and that of the exports was 103,344,225 dollars, of which 48,700,00u dollars were of the growth or manufacture of the country. No cotton was produced at home and exported in the first year of the federal government. The quantity exported in 1807, exceeded sixty millions of pounds weight, besides a great quantity consumed in the domestic manufacture.