The term of American existence is not yet thirty-four years (1809). Considering our numbers as two millions of white persons in the first year, and seven now, the medium is found at three millions and one half. For a number so inconsiderable, the persons of high esti mation, who have lived in that short period, are surely not few. Were it not liable to objections, it is be lieved, that ten or twenty names, not inferior, in high desert and talent, to an equal proportion from any other country, according to its population, might be safely in scribed upon the tablet of competition. The weight of such a fact is the more important, because the Ameri cans, of the last thirty-four years, were not educated for public life ; and were unexcited by the rich collections, in every walk of human talent, which elicit the genius of man in the old world. Many of our best and wisest men had not seen Europe before they were high in the records of deserved fame. Many have never seen any country except our own. If we desire to appreciate the benefits of an adventitious intimacy with the works of humanity, industry, art, and science, upon the youthful mind, we may find them in the rich and variegated ac quisitions of the conquering Romans from subjugated Greece. In half a century after the fall of Athens, illu minated Italy shone in its brightest age. It is not the voice of partiality or adulation, therefore, which suggests for the liberal consideration of the world, as the judges in our cause, that, nor WASHINGTON, not Greene, nor Rittenhouse, nor Hamilton, nor Madison, ever beheld the instructive exhibitions of enlightened Europe.
The amalgamating influence of the course and con dition of things in America is manifested by the actual character of the Hebrew nation, residing among us. This circumstance will be found to prove, that however different are the sources from which our population is extracted, the powerful influences upon the nearts, un derstandings and habits of all, who reside here, occasion them to acquire the same characteristics. The mutual animosities subsisting in Europe between Christians and Jews, and between Jews and Mahomettuis, do not prevail at this time in America. The Hebrew, left to the theocratical power, which here governs the conscience of man, has no cause to hate or to fear his Christian neighbour, who does him no injury in mind, body, or estate. When a Mahometan sultan, in times not very remote, has caused a procession ifi Constantinople, at every mile of which a Jew was ordered to be slain, the Hebrews among us have thanked our common Father in heaven, that they enjoyed peace and the rights of con science in this land. When they found that American Christians thus extended humanity and love to every neighbour, they ceased to despise Christians as hypocriti cal professors of a mild and tender religion, which, in too many other countries, was impiously turned into a 'church of persecution and cruelty. The inconsistencies of proclaiming peace in the name of Jesus Christ, when the oppressed or tortured Jew could find no peace, and of converting the simplicity and self-denying character of Christianity into pomp, voluptuousness, and a thirst of power, they did not find here. They unite, therefore,
with us, as men, as citizens, as patriots, in the love of God, our common creator, differing from their neigh bours in their private minds, inasmuch as they believe the Messiah is yet to come. Most reverently submitting the consciences of ourselves and of these fellow crea tures to the divine power, which can command the light to shine upon them and us, it is sufficient for our inquiry to ascertain, that the Hebrews from England, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Portugal, are assimilated to us in many essential particulars, and that their minds are amalgamated with those of the other united Ameri cans, in the love of religious and civil liberty, humanity, virtue, and knowledge. As a description of men, the Hebrew citizens were generally attached to the revolu tion of the United States; and they are at this time as friendly as any other church whatsoever to the princi ples of our free constitutions.
It may be correctly affirmed, that no people, equally civilized, have derived the principles and structure of their various institutions in so great a degree from their own will, mind, and power, as the United Americans. We are more original than any others in our policy and economy. Nor have any people varied so much from systems prevalent in the Old World, as we have done in the two centuries of our existence. The world has surely passed, in its freest parts, to greater despotism ; and we have progressed to greater freedom. Liberty has been won by the sword, and confirmed by the coun cils of the United States. If we reflect upon the civil and religious constitutions of Great Britain, and upon her internal economy, at the era of our separation, it will be found that our country has materially altered both, and much more than Great Britain herself. As the changes in America result from the proceedings of se venteen subordinate and one general legislature, the uniformity of the national character is manifested to be much greater than has heretofore appeared to superficial observers.
In this country, one language is spoken by all the white people, with a very small exception principally in a siuglt state* among persons who have been for a long time settled and patriotic inhabitants. We mean the Germans. These have always, through their own numerous gazettes, the fullest inforination of the bu,iness, and gene ral affairs of the United States. In the country, from » Inch we have been separated, four several languages arc spoken by numbers of persons in the len'. European grand divisions. lu three of those languages, no publi cations respecting the affairs of the country are es er made. Three religions bear a forcible sway by the ope ration of law or of natural strength. The colonies are remote from the metropolitan state, and widely separat ed from each other by situation, habits, and interests. These observations are not made with an invidious de sign; but if nations claiming national character arc, in truth, so diversified by natural and moral or habitual circumstances, it may be fairly presumed, that we also, less diversified, may really possess national characteris tics.