AMERICAN IMPROVEMENTS EXTENDING TO EUROPE.

would subject him to perpetual personal slavery. In all cases, where the debtor's property is exhausted, his imprisonment can only serve to distress him and his family, and to deprive society of his labor. It is sometimes done in the hope of extorting payment from his friends, an illegitimate object. In most cases, imprisonment is attended with loss as well to the creditor as the debtor. The modern prevailing sentiment on this subject is, that the mere inability to pay a debt is not criminal, nor is it any evidence of guilt; that it often arises from accident, or circumstances beyond the control of the debtor; that laws therefore, which subject him to imprisonment at the will of the creditor, are wrong in principle, and inefficacious in producing the desired object; and that the only correct course of legislation is to give the creditor every facility to avail himself of the property of his debtor.

In accordance with these views, in some of the States imprisonment for debt, unaccompanied with fraud, is wholly abolished, and in most, or all of the others, the debtor's body may be liberated on his delivering up his property for general distribution among his creditors.

One important result is, that credit will be given only to the property of the person seeking it, or to his character for industry and integrity. From facts ascertained by recent examinations, it appears that the costs which creditors have subjected themselves to, in procuring the imprisonment of their debtors, has much exceeded the amount of collections thereby enforced.

AMERICAN IMPROVEMENTS EXTENDING TO EUROPE. Four great principles of civil policy have had their origin in the United States. One, that government derives its powers from the people, to be exercised for their good. A second, that government should not interfere with the consciences of the people in relation to their religion, or exclusively patronize or support any one system. A third regards the penitentiary system, and the fourth the abolishing or ameliorating imprisonment for debt.

It is one of the important results of the extended commercial intercourse between nations, that they thereby become acquainted with each others improvements in every thing which relates to the well being of society. These principles, so important to human happiness, are gradually making their way in Europe, some of them against powerful prejudices and combinations, but in all, the progress is onward.

31

CHAPTER XVII.

Relation of the States to the Federal government. Maine. Its boundaries. Number of inhabitants. Ils constitution. Ils northern boundary. New Hampshire. Its climate. Longevity of its inhabitants. Constitution. White mountains. Education, Dartmouth college; its origin and present condition. Vermont. Its constitution. Council of censors. Colleges. Different claims on its territory. Green mountain boys. Ethan Allen. Anecdotes of him. Massachusetts. Its commerce; manufactories; fisheries. Education. Colleges. Landing of the Pilgrims. Their constitution. Salem witchcraft. Constitution; its provisions as to religion. Numbers of cach House. Destruction of the tea. Battle of Lexington. Internal improvements. Rhode Island. Its first settlement. Education. Brown University. Connecticut. Its population. First settlement. Constitution; the appointing power. Yale College. Its origin, and present condition. Other literary institutions. Asylum for the deaf and dumb. School Fund; its origin, amount, and present condition. Its management. Principles of distribution; improvement in its application. Internal improvements. Farmington canal. Rail Roads. New York. Its western section.. Salt Springs. Its constitution. Exclusion of clergymen from civil office. Safety Fund banks. Education. Colleges. Asylums for deaf and dumb. Canals. Rail Roads. City of New York; the great fire. Aaron Burr. Anecdotes of his contest for the Presidency of 1801. Duel with Hamilton. projects. Trial and acquittal. New Jersey. Its constitution. Colleges. Common education. Canals. Rail Roads. Chief towns. Pennsylvania. Its constitution. Colleges. Common education. Internal improvements. Route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Amount of state debt, and expenditures for Internal improvements. Private enterprizes. Coal mines; when and how discovered, and brought into use. Philadelphia. Its population. Fairmount water works. Gerard's benefactions. His college. Pittsburg. Braddock's field. Grant of Pennsylvania to William Penn. Anecdotes of him.

His treasonable

RELATION OF THE STATES TO THE UNITED STATES. In considering the condition of the several States, it should be borne in mind that they are sovereign and independent communities or nations, in every thing relating to their internal concerns, and in every thing in which they have not surrendered a portion of this sovereignty to the General Government, by the Federal constitution. Wherever this is done, the people, the state

COMMERCE.

authorities, and the United States collectively, are bound to yield obedience so far as the provisions of the constitution demand it.

MAINE. Maine is the northeasternmost state in the Union, and is bounded north and east by the British possessions, south by the ocean, and west by New Hampshire, extending from 43 to 48 degrees north latitude, 225 miles in length, and 185 in breadth, comprising thirty three thousand square miles of territory and 501,793 inhabitants. Its enrolled militia amounts to 46,338. Its principal exports are lumber and fish, amounting annually to nearly a million of dollars. The northern section of the state, being a mountainous country, and in a high latitude, is covered half the year with snow; its valleys are fertile, and vegetation rapid during the short summers.

Until 1820, Maine formed a part of the state of Massachusetts, when, with the consent of both sections, it was formed into a separate state, and admitted into the Union. Its population averages twelve to each square mile of territory. Its constitution, formed in 1819, contains no distinctive features. The right of suffrage is vested in all male citizens of twenty-one years of age and upward, not excluding blacks. The legislative and executive branches are elected annually. The political year commences on the first Wednesday in January. The governor has a qualified negative on the acts of the legislature, similar in principle to that of the president of the United States. He has a council of seven persons, chosen by the legislature in joint ballot; and the appointment of all officers, judicial and executive, with their advice. The judges hold their offices during good behavior, with the salutary provision, that the tenure does not extend beyond the age of seventy. The constitution is prefaced by a bill of rights, designed to secure the people from being oppressed by their rulers.

A

COMMERCE. Maine enjoys great facilities for commerce. long line of coast is indented with bays, abounding with excellent harbors. The principal bays are Casco, Penobscot, Machias, and Passamaquoddy. Its principal rivers, Penobscot and Kennebec, penetrate far into the interior, affording an easy transportation for its lumber and other productions. The river Kennebec is noted for being the scene of one of the most extraordinary expeditions of the revolutionary war. By this river, Arnold undertook to penetrate a wilderness of three hundred miles, to surprise Quebec. He accomplished the journey in the months of October and November, 1775, but with a force so enfeebled, that the main object failed.

The principal commercial city is Portland, formerly Falmouth, standing on a peninsula at the head of Casco bay, 110 miles

ITS LITERARY INSTITUTIONS. CONTESTED BOUNDARY.

northeast of Boston. It has a population of 15,218 inhabitants. This town, the oldest in the state, was burned by the British in 1775, but so far from having the effect of intimidating the inhabitants, it excited their keenest resentment, and that of the whole country. Maine has fifty banks, with a capital of $4,959,000. Bills in circulation, $2,036,640. Specie on hand, $303,605.

ITS LITERARY INSTITUTIONS. Its principal literary institutions are Bowdoin college at Brunswick, founded in 1794; number of students one hundred and fifty. Waterville, a baptist institution, founded in 1820, number of students fifty-five. Maine Wesleyan Seminary, founded in 1825, at Readfield, in the county of Kennebec, designed to educate young men of the methodist denomination, for the ministry. It is in part a manual labor school; employment sufficient to defray the expenses of board being furnished for sixty students. The whole number is one hundred and forty-three. There are also numerous academies. Each town is by law required to raise a sum equal to forty cents to each inhabitant, for the support of free common schools.

The first newspaper published in Maine, was in 1785.

CONTESTED BOUNDARY. The state of Maine bordering on two sides on the British possessions, its boundaries have been the subject of unpleasant controversies, yet unsettled between Great Britain and the United States.

NEW HAMPSHIRE. New Hampshire adjoins the state of Maine on the east, and is separated from Vermont by Connecticut river on the west. It extends from the Atlantic to the southern border of Lower Canada, a distance of 168 miles; its greatest breadth is 90 miles, containing an area of 9491 square miles, and 284,574 inhabitants, being twenty-three to each square mile of territory. Its enrolled militia amounts to 27,144.

The constitution of this state, as revised and amended in 1792, varies in no important principle from those of other States. The executive and legislative departments are annually elected, and commence their duties on the first Wednesday in June. Its inhabitants are principally agriculturists. Its soil is sufficiently fertile to yield a competent support to the industrious husbandman, but gives him no time to be idle. It borders but eighteen miles on the sea, and Portsmouth is its only harbor. The climate is subject to the extremes of heat and cold, and to great and sudden changes. The air is pure and salubrious. To their climate, and to their frugal and industrious habits, is to be attributed the remarkable longevity of its inhabitants. Winter usually commences in November and ends in April.

WHITE MOUNTAINS.

WHITE MOUNTAINS.

The white mountains in the northern

section of the state, are the highest in the United States east of the Mississippi. They are in latitude 44°, and distant from

Their

Portsmouth, in a northwesterly direction, eighty miles. base is twenty miles in length, and ten in breadth. The five highest peaks are dignified with the names of the first five Presidents. The summit of mount Washington is 6234 feet, and its base 1770 above the level of the sea. One of the branches of the Connecticut, and the principal branches of the Merrimac river, have their sources in these mountains. Forest trees cover their sides, but vegetation decreases towards the top, and entirely ceases at some distance from the summit. They are covered with ice and snow ten months in the year. Though situated sixty miles from the ocean, at the nearest point, they are seen

at a considerable distance from the coast. The notch in these mountains is a natural curiosity. It is a narrow defile extend