Plainness and simplicity, by diminishing the number of imaginary wants, produce independence of situation and of mind. So does the facility of finding employ ment and of acquiring property. The human mercury falls below its natural degree, under the chilling influence of miserable poverty.
The causes and nature of the various institutions of the United States, religious and civil, have combined to produce the noblest elevation of the public mind. The manifestoes and declarations of the American Con gress, from the time of its original foundation, display the evils, which the people were unwilling to suffer, the increasing determination to obtain a remedy, a clear development of rights and interests, a rejection of all authority and institutions which were unjust, illegal or dangerous, and the creation, by their own will, of new delegations of power and institutions calculated to se cure the principles and execution of free government, in the church and in the state. The volume of the pub lic at ts, of the disquisitions and constitutional character, issued with all the authority of the nation, from the firs) proceedings in 1774 to the time of the completion of our existing national instillment of union, will be Lund to contain more to clevalc the ;pith rf man and Juan rve th it •pirit erect and 1ig00rms, than is recorded in the history of any other nation. The true and natural result is, that independent man here knows not any laws, save those which choice and CO111111011 good ordain—no master save preserving Heaven.
Another general characteristic of the North Ameri cans is that, in their temporal affairs, tlity are c of intrIligencc• czt:ci et (ilk o.
The first attempts to settle this country were only two hundred years ago. The territory of the United States was then one extended and unproductive forest. In two centuries we have risen, from the poor condi tion of importing all things, to export by water, in a single year, property to the vast amount of one hun dred and eight millions of dollars. If we add to that prodigious sum, the exports by land to the foreign pro vinces and to the savage tribes around us, the supplies consumed within the country by transient foreigners, the value of the vessels, which arrive and depart, the ships sold to foreign persons, the cargoes carried from the fisheries without cooling into port and passing through the custom-houses, and the net outward freights in our own vessels, (all of which constitute a part of the surplus income of the land and industry of the country) we may safely compute the wonderful aggregate at one hundred and twenty millions of dollars in a single year.
It may be said, that this is the momentary result of an extraordinary state of things. But yet the whole busi ness was actually done, and the United Americans have proved their right to the character of intelligence and exertion in using, so well, a transitory opportunity. They seized " the tide in the affairs of life, which led to fortune." But, if the ordinary business of the country, in its ex ports, freights and other modes of operation, which have been just now detailed, will amount only to half the sum, where, it may be asked, is the country, which shews a like amount for a population less than eight millions ? The shipments of the three British kingdoms are not so valuable in proportion to their people, deducting those Avhich Great Britain sends to Ireland, and Ireland to Great Britain ; deducting all the internal excises which remain on the goods, and the export duties with which they are charged ; and allowing, as is done above, one half its highest amount for the extraordinary advantages they also have had, in their greatest year. But a large addition to the estimate of the industry of the United Americans remains to be made. The amount of the value of our annual clearings of land, of buildings in our towns and in the country, and of other improvements of the cities, farms, mill-seats, canals, roads, and other fixed objects, is very considerable. An accurate com putation of the whole of our exports and improvements appears to justify the opinion, that we are equal in the intelligence, energy and avails of our exertions to any other nation. We have industriously traversed every sea ; and in a few years, we have made new towns, districts, counties, and states out of our immense for ests.