INTRODUCTION;

COMPRISING

A GENERAL VIEW OF THE JJNITED STATES.

On the subject of the United States of America it is not easy to write or to feel with
calmness. Such and so great are the interests involved, that it requires no little controJ of
the mind to maintain a freedom from enthusiasm in contemplating the rapid growth and de¬
velopment of these states, and the field of inquiry and effort which they display.

The following work professes to exhibit in detail the . several parts, even to the most minute,
of this now vast body, in a view at once geographical, civil or political, and moral or religious.
It presents the natural features and the various peculiarities of the widely-extended domains,
which, by the divine Providence, working its own wonders by various means, have been united
into one nation, and placed under one form of government. This government is, indeed, of
diversified application, in respect to its subjects or constituents, gathered from almost every
people, and in the employment of its energies, as every government must be. Yet its princi¬
ples and design are simple, and open to the inspection of all. The establishment of its prin¬
ciples has cost ages of human thought, labor, and suffering. Its design, both professedly and
practically, is the public good.

That such is the character of the government providentially established in these states is
clear, from the fact that it has originated from the people, and is virtually managed by them¬
selves. They have modified it as the circumstances attending its operation have appeared to
them to require; and their own experience of its good or ill effects has decided both their
judgment and actions concerning it. It admits not of the doctrine of “ millions made for one,"
but cherishes the grand idea of reaching, with paternal and salutary attention, the masses of
men and their wants. Hence it has opened, expressly, an asylum for all of the human race
who are honorably seeking the enjoyment of that prosperity and influence with which God is
ready to endow his moral, accountable creatures on earth, and are willing to bear the labor
and sustain the responsibility that are necessary to secure them.

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