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Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Rhode Island, form of themselves a constellation extremely remarkable among the States of the Union. Their interests, their prejudices, their laws, even their follies and very accent are the same. They are what in the rest of the Union we call Yankees; a name which the English have very erroneously extended to all the nation. These six republics are one fraternity. Their industry and capital are immense; they cover the ocean with our flag, and furnish our navy and merchantships with seamen; they have also given birth to many of our greatest men. Their character is very remarkable, and admits of comparison with no other people on the earth. The most gigantic enterprises do not frighten them, nor are they above engaging in those of small detail; all which they conduct with a spirit of order and minuteness quite peculiar to themselves. These men seem born to calculate shillings and pence, but they raise themselves thereby to count by millions, without losing anything of their exactness, or of the littleness of their ordinary views. They betray a shameless avidity after profit, and, like Petit-Jean, candidly tell you,

"Que sans argent honneur n'est qu'une maladie."

This spirit of calculation and avarice is strangely blended with the strict observance of the Sunday, which they call Sabbath, and of all the puritanical practices of the Presbyterian religion, which they have generally adopted. They are in this respect so scrupulous, that a brewer was reproved in church for having brewed on the Saturday, by which the beer had been exposed to work on the Sabbath. They call this morality, which, according to them, consists much more in not swearing, singing, dancing, or walking, on Sunday, than in not making a fraudulent bankruptcy. This species of religious hypocrisy is so natural to them, that the greater number practise it as a thing of course. They glory in calling themselves "the country of steady habits," not because they are more virtuous than other people, but because they assume a contrite air once a week, and eat nothing on Saturdays but cod-fish and apple pies. Boston, their capital, abounds, however, in men of literary eminence: it is the Athens of the Union; it was the cradle of liberty, and produced many of its most zealous champions in the council as well as in the field. Instruction is much more generally diffused there, than in any other part of the world. They possess, in fact, all the elements of greatness, and evince enlarged views, without foregoing anything of that petty spirit of detail which mixes itself with all their proceedings. Everywhere, a Yankee may be recognized by his adroitness in asking questions about what he already knows, by the evasive manner in which he answers questions addressed to himself without ever affirming anything, and particularly by the address with which he manages to eclipse himself. when there is something for him to pay. In politics, these six States are united: they vote as one man. Here is the seat of the commercial interest, although since some years, they turn their attention to manufactures also, with the success which accompanies all that they undertake. The country is very populous, very well cultivated, and even in it, the capital employed in agriculture is as considerable as that absorbed in

commerce.

The central States are very far from being so united in interest, or having so marked a physiognomy. The State of New York forms a nation of more than a million of souls. The city of New York contains a hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants; the houses built there during the last year are not less than fifteen hundred, and it is expected that three times that number will be built during the present. Nothing can exceed the spirit of enterprise, activity, and industry of the people. Here are no straitened views; people speak of but millions of dollars; business is done with unequalled rapidity, and yet in general so as to escape any severe shocks: everything advances with giant, but at the same time regular, steps. This state of things has received a fresh impulse from the genius of the present governor, Mr. de Witt Clinton, who originated the idea of the great canal which unites Lake Erie to the sea. The internal activity of this State is so great, and so entirely absorbed within itself, as to leave none for its affairs with the Union. Accordingly, its influence is hardly felt there; for, having everything within itself, it unites in its own deputation the interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures: the commercial interest, however, predominates. It is worthy of remark, that this State has sent to the national councils very few men of superior mind. The people are absorbed and annihilated in their internal politics, which are extremely complicated, and are said to be full of very silly intrigues. A stranger can comprehend nothing of all this, but may perceive that parties are bitter and personal, two very bad signs.

'Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, form a groupe more resembling each other. The people are distinguished by their goodnature, tranquillity, and industry. Except in Philadelphia, the manufacturing and agricultural interests prevail. These States are in great part peopled with peaceable Quakers and Germans. Everything goes on quietly, without shock or anything to excite observation. If Boston is the abode of literature, Philadelphia is that of science; which gives, perhaps, to its society a tinge of pedantry.

A year or two ago, New Jersey attempted to leap forward in the perilous career of great enterprises, and to imitate its northern neighbour; but, after committing some errors, it has now returned to wiser principles. The legislature this year peremptorily refuses to incorporate new banks, and has even withdrawn the charters of some of the old ones.

Maryland is also divided in interest, like these other States; for while Baltimore is one of the most trading cities of the Union, the rest of the country is agricultural and manufacturing. The character of the people is a singular mixture of the simplicity and good nature of the Pennsylvanian Quakers, and the pride of the Virginian planters. It is the only State in which religious intolerance exists, rather through ancient habit than actual prejudice; the Jews cannot vote there. This State finds itself, with respect to its Negroes, and perhaps in a higher degree, in the same difficulty as Virginia.

This latter State has, during a long period, played the chief part in the Union, by means of its politics and its great men: it is the birth-place of four of our presidents. But Virginia is much fallen in splendour, for which, indeed, it was principally indebted to party irritation. Its interests are wholly agricultural and manufacturing. The people are noble, generous, and hospitable, but coarse, vain, and haughty. They pride themselves, above everything, on their frank honesty; and their laws, usages, and politics partake of this laudable ostentation. They are very united as a people; and never is the opinion of the State given unsupported by the suffrage of all Virginia. Their politics, however, are apt to be personal, factious, turbulent, and noisy. It is, beyond comparison, the State most abundant in lawyers, or at least in persons studying the law; and who, although they boast much of democracy, are the only real aristocrats of the Union : witness the right of suffrage, from which the populace is excluded in this

State.

Tobacco and corn are the staple cultivation of Virginia and Maryland: the first of these articles requires slave labour; the other is more profitably cultivated by free hands. Tobacco exhausts the land very rapidly, and only thrives in new and very fertile soils; hence it follows that, these lands being now nearly exhausted, at least comparatively, and the price of tobacco being diminished, owing to the quantity grown in the west, the planters are reduced to cultivate corn, and are obliged to rid themselves of their slaves, who are no longer profitable. The day, therefore, is not distant, when we shall see these two States unite themselves with those of the North against the slave-holding States. However, since a year or two, they, particularly Virginia, have successfully undertaken the culture of short cotton, which has given fresh value to their negroes, and may perhaps restore Virginia to its former splendour. But since then, short cotton, in common with all other cottons, has undergone a great reduction in price, in consequence of which all the southern States are in a declining con

dition.

North Carolina is a bad imitation of Virginia; its interests and politics are the same, and it navigates in its own waters. Notwithstanding its gold mines, it is the poorest State of the Union, and the one which supplies most emigrants to the new lands.

South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, constitute what is properly called the South. Their interest is purely agricultural; their productions are cotton, long and short, sugar, rice, and maize, all which require slave-labour, and yield a sufficiently good profit to deter them from any other employment of their funds. The excellence of the land, together with the luxurious climate, so well second the labour of the cultivator, that it is much more advantageous to employ the negroes in the field than in the factory. Although character necessarily varies considerably over so large an extent of country, the features of a common race are discernible. Their frankness, generosity, hospitality, and liberality of opinion, have become proverbial, and form a perfect contrast to the Yankee character, much to the disadvantage of the latter. In the midst of this groupe stands South Carolina, conspicuous for a combination of talents unequalled throughout the Union. The society of Charleston is the best I have met with in my travels, whether on this or on your side of the Atlantic. In respect to finish and elegance of manners, it leaves nothing to be desired, and, what is of more value with people who, like you and me, attach little importance to mere politeness, it swarms with real talent, and that without the alloy of pedantry. In all questions of a common interest, this State always leads. The politics of the other States, except Georgia, are not yet sufficiently of a decided character to justify me in speaking of them. As to Georgia, with pain I must declare to you, that nothing can equal the fury of its factions, unless it be those of Kentucky: in the latter, however, the contention is for principles; whilst the disputes of Georgia are merely about men. The present governor has pushed matters so far, that the evil is in a fair way of being cured by its very excess.

The other States form the west. Incomparably the largest and richest part of the Union, it will be ere long, if it be not already, the most populous; power will follow shortly, as well as luxury, instruction, and the arts, which are its consequences. Their interests are manufacturing and agricultural; the former bearing the chief sway. The character of the people is strongly marked by a rude instinct of robust liberty, degenerating often into licentiousness, a simplicity of morals, and an uncouthness of manners, approaching occasionally to coarseness and cynical independence. These States are too immature to enable me to say much of their politics, which are, for the most part, sour and ignorant. Universities, established everywhere with luxury, afford promise of a generation of better informed politicians, who will have their fathers' faults under their eyes to assist in their own enlightenment.' Murat, pp. 6-15.

We are not sure whether Citizen Murat's moral and political sketch, though a zealous and fervent eulogy, almost throughout, of his adopted country, will not, upon the whole, leave an impression upon many English readers, as unfavourable to the Americans as the ill-natured caricatures furnished by Mrs. Trollope.

The 'Citizen of the World', who has favoured us with his notions of the Americans, is of the same school in politics as Citizen Murat. His volume is dedicated to La Fayette; and his object is, to teach us to 'respect a people, from any individual ' of which, the immortal Byron was proud to confess, he valued a 'nod more highly than the gift of a snuff-box from an emperor.' Our readers will know what to look for in the opinions of a cosmopolist of this school. In one respect, however, justice requires us to remark, that this Writer differs widely in sentiment from Mr. Achilles Murat. He is not the apologist for slavery, or for the American prejudices respecting the free coloured portion of the population. As his slight and rapid sketch is, in all other respects, complimentary to the people of the United States, his evidence upon this subject must be considered as impartial. We shall therefore extract a paragraph or two, relating to this sad flaw in the social system.

The African Colonization Society must be looked upon as a wellmeant plan, and as one which, in time, may create a moral revolution in the natives of the districts of Africa contiguous to Liberia, and even of those in the interior provinces; but, as regards America, its operations seemed rather calculated to perpeluate than to extinguish slavery. The scheme, as far as benefiting Africa, and, perhaps, the individuals removed thither, is a good one; but, viewed as the means of getting rid of the whole black population, which idea is really entertained by many, although not desired by the owners of slaves, it is chimerical. p. 249.

As might be supposed, in a community like that of New York, where but yesterday man might be bartered and sold by his brother man, the general feeling towards the blacks is that of persons to a proscribed caste; and although these unfortunate people are no longer accounted property, and are enabled to stipulate the price of their labour, they are subject to the most degrading treatment.

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No persons of colour, whatever may be their characters, abilities, condition of life, are allowed to sit in any public assembly, even should it be a court of justice, or the house of God itself, except in the particular quarter set apart for them, and this is generally in the most remote and worst situation; and, as if the distinction were to be perpetuated for ever, their very bodies are denied the right of sepulture in the cemeteries of the white men.

On the festival [National Jubilee] I have described, the insulting behaviour of many of the coachmen and carters was unblushingly displayed in their driving their vehicles so as to interrupt the progress and order of the procession, although we did not witness a single provocation given by any of its members, whose conduct appeared, throughout, quiet and praiseworthy.

Such were the indignities offered by men who are ready to sacrifice their lives to secure the blessings of liberty for their white brethren -to those whose misfortune is, that Heaven has thought fit to create them of a darker hue; and so prevalent is the want of Christian feeling in this respect in America, the legacy of the accursed system of slavery, that I but speak the truth when I state, that the majority of the Americans, like the white inhabitants of every country where the evil exists, or has only lately been extinguished, would as readily sit at table or associate with a felon, as with a person of colour.

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It will be some consolation to the friends of humanity, however, to be told that, despite of the existing temper, exertions are making by enlightened individuals to raise the character of the coloured population, by the only legitimate means, whether as regards blacks or whites, the establishment of schools.

The foremost in this work of religion are the members of the sect of Friends, who, in the New as well as in the Old World, whatever may be their peculiarities, are always found in the steps of their Great Master, going about doing good.

Already hundreds of black children in New York are regularly instructed in the rudiments of knowledge; and churches, in which black ministers of the Episcopal, Independent, and Methodist persuasions officiate, are attended by crowded congregations of the same

VOL. IX. -N.S.

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