The detail of facts, which has been faithfully exhibit ed in this article, will naturally excite, both at home and abroad, a particular consideration of the nature of our country, and of the qualities of a people, distinguished by so rich a growth of religious, moral, and intellectual good, and by so large a share of the spontaneous pro ductions of the land and sea, and of the diversified fruits of skilful cultivation.
The real character of every independent nation is a subject of interesting consideration. An impartial sur vey of any one of those distinct political families, which are destined to flourish and to decline, to act and to suffer in constant and intimate connection with the rest of mankind, in the same defined terraqucous sphere, cannot fail deeply to affect the hearts and understand ings of their fellow men. To ourselves, it is plain, that a profound and faithful enquiry into all the causes, na tural, moral and accidental, which have tended to pro duce our true character, will have many of the precious consequences of self-examination.—To the rest of man kind, numerous monitions against evil, or inducements to good, may be allbrded by those, who happily conduct such investigations.
But the present character of the people of the United States of America, as the only* independent civilized nation of this grand division of the earth, and as the youngest people of our globe, as well as from other causes, is peculiarly important and interesting. It has been happily observed, with great truth and wisdom by one of the best and most sagacious of our own states memt that " it is the glory of the people of America, that, while they have paid a decent regard to the opi nions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for cus tom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of then own good sense, the knowledge of their own situa tion, and the lessons of their own experience. To this manly spirit, posterity will be indebted fur the possession, and the world for the example of the nu merous innovations displayed on the American thea tre, in favour of private rights and public happiness. Had no important step been taken by the leaders of the revolution, for which a precedent could not be discoveied, no government established of which an exact model did not present itself, the people of the United States might, at this moment, have been num bered among the melancholy victims of misguided counsels, or must at best have been labouring under the weight of some of those forms, which have crushed the liberties of the rest of mankind. Happily for Ame
rica, happily we trust for the whole human race, they pursued a new and more noble course. They accom plished a revolution, which has no parallel in the an nals of human society : they reared the fabrics of governments which have no model on the face of the globe : they formed the design of a great confedera cy, which it is incumbent on their successors to im prove and perpetuate." It will be necessary to review, with the utmost deli beration, and without prejudice, a number and of natural and moral causes, which seem to have cu riously combined to excite and to modify the character istic distinctions of the people of United America.
The northern part of the American continent, which they inhabit, is much larger than all Europe—than all the old parts of the civilized world. Their extensive dominions are formed into one connected body, combi ning the glowing region of the cane. with those where the rigour of the north forbids vegetation through near ly half the year.
Their great inland waters invited them to an early familiarity with the marine cradles, trained them as in their primary nautical schools, and have regularly drawn many of them on to ineet all the changes of the incon stant ocean, with a perfect familiarity. The skill and facility in navigation, acquir6d by habit and improved by all the relative arts, have established the most inti mate connection between them, the younger children of civil polity,' and all the people of the old world, and of the new found countries.
Their woods and forests draw many of the United Americans to the bold, the hardy, and the active chase, armed always against beasts of prey ; teaching them at once the use of defensive arms, and to bear privations and fatigues, unknown to the mass of the people of the European states.