CHAPTER XII. STATES. ting them for legislation and government both in national and local affairs. As for A BRIEF GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE UNITED the larger towns, they are incorporated as cities and boroughs, and have municipal governments of a threefold kind: legisla- physical character and resources of the tive, executive, and judicial. IN like manner, a short account of the United States will be found useful to the reader. allels of 24° 27′ and 54° 40′ north latitude, The United States lie between the parand 66° 50′ and 125° west longitude from Greenwich, and are bounded as follows: On the east, by the Atlantic and the British Province of New-Brunswick; on the The separation of the colonies from Great Britain, and the reorganization of their respective governments, produced changes less essential than at first view might be supposed. The King, Parliament, and Justiciary of England were superseded by the President, Congress, and Supreme Court of the United States, the nature of the government remaining essentially the same. For a he-south, by the Gulf of Mexico, Texas, and reditary sovereign, we have a President, the Pacific Ocean; and on the north, by the Republic of Mexico; on the west, by chosen once in four years; for a hereditary, the British possessions, from which they House of Peers, a Senate, the members of which are chosen for six years; the are separated partly by the River St. Lawpowers of the President and Senate being almost rence and the great chain of lakes that flow identical in most things with those of the into, or, rather, that form a series of excorresponding branches of the British Con- pansions of that river, and partly by a constitution. As for the several colonies, ventional line west of the Oregon Mountthese the Revolution transformed into ains, which line has not been determined. states, and the old royal charters were suThe United States' government claims up perseded by constitutions. Beyond this to latitude 54° 40', but this is resisted by there was no essential change, and but lit- England. The 49° degree of north latitude tle alteration even in forms. Instead of will most probably be agreed to, that being being appointed by the British crown, or by those mountains to the Lake of the Woods, the latitude of the boundary eastward of proprietary companies or individuals, the governors are chosen by the people themafter which it pursues a southeast direction selves. The legislative and judicial branch- through some small lakes, and across an ines underwent very little modification. tervening portage to Lake Superior, which is the uppermost of the chain of lakes through which the St. Lawrence flows.. There are now in the American Union twenty-six organized states, three territories, and one district. The territories are under the government of the President and Congress of the United States, but will become states as soon as the amount of their population entitles them, in the opinion of Congress, to be represented in the National Legislature. They have a Legislature of their own, but their governors are appointed by the President. Two, namely, Wisconsin and Iowa, will soon have a sufficient population to entitle them to a place among the states. And when these are admitted, Florida will probably be so too. Under the impression that the National Government should be removed from the immediate influence of any one state, the District of Columbia, ten miles square, was taken from Virginia and Maryland, and set apart as the seat of the National Government, and to it, that is, to the President, Congress, and Supreme Court, it is immediately subject. Experience has hardly approved of this measure as either wise or necessary. No part of the country is worse governed, Congress being too much occupied with other matters to pay much attention to so insignificant a territory. The preceding outline will suffice to give the reader some idea of the government of the United States, and prepare him for understanding many things which might otherwise be obscure in the farther course of this work. A glance at the map will show that this vast territory consists of three grand sections, the Atlantic slope, the Pacific slope, and the intermediate Valley of the Mississippi. The whole is computed by Mr. Tanner, a distinguished American geographer, to contain 2,037,165 square miles. be given as follows: On the north, from the mouth of the St. Ocean Miles. 3000 600 865 2300 1100 1800 9665 Of the 2,037,165 square miles, constituting, according to Mr. Tanner, the area of the United States, about 400,000 are Florida; 1,341,649 in the Valley of the found on the Atlantic slope, including East Mississippi,* and 295,516 on the Pacific slope. Hence it appears that nearly two thirds of the whole territory of the United States lie in the Valley of the Mississippi, a fact which shows the vast relative importance of that section of the country. * According to Mr. Darby's estimate, the Valley of the Mississippi contains 1,341,649. and enlarging, as it advances southward, from twenty to nearly a hundred miles broad, the latter being its width in the state of North Carolina. Between this sandy tract and the Alleghany Mountains the land is generally fertile, and produces various crops, according to the climate, such as fine wheat and the other cereal grains in NewJersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vir also largely cultivated, cotton in the Carolinas and in Georgia; and on the rich bottom lands along the bays and streams of the sandy tract, rice and indigo. As we advance northward along this fertile tract intervening between the sand and the mountains, we gradually leave the region of transition and secondary rocks, and enter on that of granite, so that before reaching the State of Maine, primitive rocks abound everywhere, even on the surface of the ground. Upon a survey of the whole of this territory, it will be found to possess physical advantages such as few other countries enjoy. While, with the exception of Florida, all parts of it comprise a large proportion of excellent soil, many exhibit the most astonishing fertility. It abounds in the most valuable minerals. Iron is found in several states in great abundance. At various points, but particularly in the Mid-gia; in which last two states tobacco is dle States, there are vast deposites of coal, which is easily conveyed by water carriage to other parts of the country. Even gold is found in considerable quantities in the western parts of North Carolina, and the adjacent parts of South Carolina and Georgia, and some in Virginia and Tennessee. The almost boundless forests of the interior furnish timber suited to all purposes. Navigable rivers everywhere present facilities for trade. On the Atlantic slope, beginning from the east and advancing southwest, we find in succession the Pe- But in point of fertility the Atlantic slope nobscot, the Kennebec, the Merrimac, the bears no comparison with the Valley of the Connecticut, the Hudson, the Delaware, Mississippi, embracing a territory about six the Susquehanna, the Potomac, the Rap- times as large as that of France, and likely, pahannock, the James River, the Roanoke, ere long, to be the abode of many millions the Neuse, the Fear, the Pedee, the San-of the human race. Fifty years ago it contee, the Savannah, the Altamaha, and the St. John's, without reckoning many smaller but important streams, navigable by common boats and small steamers. Many of these rivers, such as the Delaware, the Potomac, the Rappahannock, the James, and the Roanoke, expand into noble estuaries before they fall into the ocean; and the coast is indented, also, with many bays, unrivalled in point of extent and beauty. Beginning from the east, we have Portland or Casco Bay, Portsmouth Bay, Newburyport Bay, Massachusetts Bay, Buzzard's Bay, Narragansett Bay, New-York Bay, Amboy Bay, Delaware Bay, Chesapeake Bay, into which twelve wide-mouthed rivers fall, Wilmington Bay, Charleston Bay, &c., &c. tained little more than a hundred thousand inhabitants; the population of the settled part of it amounted, as we have seen, in 1840,* to above six millions, and this, it is calculated from the data supplied in the last forty years, will have increased, in thirty-five years hence, to not much under thirty millions. By the end of the present century it will probably be not less than fifty or sixty millions. The tabular view on page 22 shows the immense size of the eleven states and two territories already organized in this vast valley; let us now look for a moment to their natural resources. Ohio, lying between the beautiful river of that name and Lake Erie, comprises 40,260 square miles, and a population of With the exception of part of the eastern above a million and a half. As England coast of Connecticut, a chain of islands, and Wales have 57,929 square miles, and some inhabited, many not, runs parallel to 15,906,829 inhabitants, Ohio, at the same the shore, beginning at Passamaquoddy ratio, would have 11,055,066. With the Bay, and extending to the southern ex- exception of a part of it in the southeast, tremity of Florida, and thence round into on the Hockhocking River, there is little the Gulf of Mexico, and along its coast, to poor land in the state. Vast forests cover beyond the western limit of the United the greater part of it to this day. Lake States. Thus are formed some of the finest Erie on the north, the River Ohio on the channels for an extensive coasting trade, south, and several navigable streams flowsuch as Long Island Sound, Albemarle ing from the interior, both to the north and Sound, Pamlico Sound, and many others. south, give it great natural advantages for To increase these facilities, canals and rail-commerce; in addition to which, two imroads have been extended along the coast portant artificial lines of communication, from Portland in Maine, to Charleston in made at great expense, traverse it from South Carolina, and even farther. *The exact population of the eleven states and Immediately on the seacoast of the west-two territories of the Valley of the Mississippi was, ern part of New-Jersey, there commences a belt of sand, which extends along the whole margin of the Southern States, covered with an almost uninterrupted forest of pines, without including Western Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Flordia, in 1840, 6,376,972; in 1830 it was 3,342,680; in 1820 it was 2,237,454; in 1810 it was 1,099,180 in 1800 it was 385,647; in 1790 it was only 109,888. Lake Erie to the Ohio. Cincinnati, its commercial capital, has a population of not less than fifty thousand inhabitants. Indiana and Illinois are scarcely, if at all, inferior to Ohio in natural advantages; and considering its proportion of first-rate land, Michigan is, perhaps, the best state in the Union. Kentucky and Tennessee abound both in good land and in mineral resources. world. But besides these two great inlets from the north and south, communication with the Atlantic slope has been opened up at various points of the Alleghany chain, by means of substantial roads of the ordinary construction, and also by canals and railways. Thus a railway, above six hundred miles in length, unites the town of Buffalo on Lake Erie with .Boston; a canal unites it with Albany, and from that Missouri, one of the largest states in the point the Hudson River connects it with Union, possesses a vast extent of excellent New-York. Buffalo communicates, again, land, besides rich mines of iron and of lead. with all the northern parts of Ohio, IndiThe two territories, Iowa and Wisconsin, ana, Michigan, and Illinois, and with the lying northward of Missouri and Illinois, eastern side of the Wisconsin Territory, the former on the west, and the latter on by fifty steamboats which ply between it the east of the Upper Mississippi, are large and the ports of those regions. To all and fertile districts of country, abounding these advantages we must ascribe the rapalso in lead mines. Both are evidently id appearance of so many large cities in destined to become great states. Arkan- this great Western Valley, such as Newsas having a great deal of inferior, as well Orleans, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, as of fertile land, is considered one of the and Pittsburgh, to say nothing of smaller poorest states on the Mississippi. The towns on spots which, with the exception large State of Alabama, with the exception of New-Orleans, may be said to have been of a small part in the south, about Mobile, covered by the forest only fifty years ago. and another part in the north, near the Ten- I conclude this chapter by remarking nessee River, was, in 1815, in the occupan- for a moment on the kind and wise Provicy of the Creek, Chocta, and Chickasa In-dence which kept the great Valley of the dians, chiefly the first of those tribes, but Mississippi from the possession, and alis now rapidly increasing in population. The State of Mississippi has also much land of the very best quality, and although its financial affairs are at present in a deplorable condition, from bad legislation, it may be expected, in a few years, to emerge from its embarrassments. Humanly speaking, it must be so, for its natural resources are great. And as for Louisiana, the rich alluvial soil of the banks of its rivers, and its advantages for commerce, derived from its position in the lowest part of the great Valley of the Mississippi, must eventually make it a rich and powerful state. But it would require the perseverance shown in similar circumstances by the people of Holland, to defend with dikes the southern portion of the Delta of the Mississippi, and to make the whole the valuable country into which it might be converted. An immense tract of almost unexplored country lies to the northwest of the State of Missouri and the Territories of Iowa and Wisconsin, much of which is believed to be fertile. What new states may yet be formed there, time alone will show. Nearly the whole of this vast valley is drained by one great river and its branches, of which no fewer than fifty-seven are navigable for steamboats. Indeed, the Missouri, the Arkansas, the Red River, and the White River, flowing from the west, and the Illinois, the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee, from the north and east, are themselves great rivers. On the north the great lakes, and on the south the Gulf of Mexico, form openings into this vast region for the commerce of the most from the knowledge of the colonists of the United States, for more than one hundred and fifty years. By that time, they had so far occupied and reduced to cultivation the less fertile hills of the Atlantic slope, and there had acquired that hardy, industrious, and virtuous character, which better fitted them to carry civilization and religion into the vast plains of the West. So that, at this day, the New-England and other Atlantic States, while increasing in population themselves, serve, at the same time, as nurseries from which the West derives many of the best plants that are transferred to its noble soil. CHAPTER XIII. OBSTACLES WHICH THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM SOME persons in Europe entertain the idea, that if the "American plan" of supporting religion, by relying, under God's blessing, upon the efforts of the people, rather than upon the help of the government, has succeeded in that country, it has been owing, in a great measure, to the fact that the country presented an open field for the experiment; that everything was new there; that no old establishments had to be pulled down; no deep-rooted prejudices to be eradicated; no time-honoured institutions to be modified; but that all was favourable for attempting something new under the sun. Now it is hardly possible to entertain an idea more remote from the truth than this. cles which the "American plan" of supporting religion had to overcome arose from the erroneous views of the colonists on the subject of religious liberty. The voluntary system rests on the grand basis of perfect religious freedom. I mean a who believe Christianity to be true, and for those who do not; for those who prefer one form of worship, and for those who prefer another. This is all implied, or, rather, it is fully avowed, at the first step What follows will demonstrate that, so far from committing religion to the spon-freedom of conscience for all; for those taneous support of persons cordially interested in its progress, the opposite course was pursued from the first almost, in all the colonies. In the greater number of the colonies, in fact, men looked to the civil government for the support of the Chris-in supporting religion upon this plan. tian ministry and worship. Now what we Now it so happened-nor ought we to have here to consider is not the question wonder at it, for it would have been a whether they were right or wrong in doing miracle had it been otherwise-that very so, but the simple fact that they actually many of the best colonists who settled in did so; and, accordingly, that, so far from America had not yet attained to correct what has been called the Voluntary Prin-ideas on the subject of religious toleration ciple having had an open field in America, and the rights of conscience. It required in those very parts of the country which persecution, and that thorough discussion now, perhaps, best illustrate its efficiency, it had long to struggle with establishments founded on the opposite system, and with strong prepossessions in their favour.. Such was Roger Williams; such were Lord Baltimore and the Roman Catholics who settled in Maryland; such was William Penn. Accordingly, the three colonies that they founded, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, including Delaware, were the first communities, either in the New or the Oid World, that enjoyed religious liberty in the fullest extent. of the subject which persecution brought in its train, both in the colonies and in England and other European countries, to make them understand the subject. And, In all such parts of the country many in point of fact, those who first understood obstacles were opposed to the abandon-it had learned it in the school of persecution. ment of the old system. Good and great men made no secret of their fears that the cause of religion would thus be ruined; that the churches would be forsaken by the people, whose unaided efforts would prove unequal to the expense of maintaining them, and that they could never be induced to attempt it. In fact, as they had never been accustomed to rely upon their own exertions in that matter, and were not aware how much they could do, they were at first timid and discouraged. Another obstacle lay in the unwillingness of those who had enjoyed the influence and ascendency conferred by the old system, to surrender those advantages. Such persons were prone to believe, and naturally sought to impress others with the conviction, no doubt very sincerely, that their resistance to the proposed change was the legitimate fruit of their zeal for the cause of God, and of their dread lest that cause should suffer. I am sure, indeed, that, as I have already. said, the founders of the first American colonies, and those of New-England in particular, did as much for freedom of conscience as could have been expected, and were in that respect in advance of the age in which they lived. If they were intolerant, so were others. If they would not allow Roman Catholics to live among them, the most dreadful examples, be it remembered, of Roman Catholic intolerance were forced upon their attention, and that their policy was merciful in the extreme compared with that of Roman Catholic countries in those days. They merely refused to receive them or to allow them to remain among them, whereas the poor Huguenots of France were not permitted so much as to retire from amid their enemies. If, in some of the colonies, Quakers were treated with great harshness and shocking in Other obstacles, and those not inconsiderable, had to be encountered, all resulting directly or indirectly from the old system. It will be shown, in due time, that some of the worst heresies in the United States were originated and propagated by measures arising out of the old system. What I mean to say is, that Truth has there en-justice, what treatment did the members of countered powerful obstacles, which we have every reason to believe would not have existed but for that union. Other evils there might have been in the absence of any such union; but, be that as it may, with the obstacles to which I refer, it could not be said that the field was entirely new, far less that it was open. that sect receive at the same period in England? If the colonists burned witches, was not that done also in Scotland, England, and other countries? I may therefore repeat, that the colonists were in advance of their contemporaries in their views of almost all questions relating to human rights, and that they mainStill more: some of the greatest obsta-tained this advance is attested by the insti tutions that arose among them. But the intolerance with which these were chargeable at first, may be traced to their opinions with regard to the relations which the Church ought to sustain towards the State. And their erroneous views on that subject created obstacles which were with difficulty overcome by the principle of leaving religion, not to the support as well as protection of the State, but to the hearts and hands of persons who have truly received, and are willing to sustain it. These remarks will suffice to show that the field was not so open to that principle in America as some have thought. CHAPTER XIV. OBSTACLES WHICH THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM more or less flourishes. Such of them as are not decidedly religious in heart and life, greatly risk losing any good impressions they may have brought with them, amid the engrossing cares and manifold temptations of their new circumstances; circumstances in which even the established Christian will find much need of redoubled vigilance and prayer. The comparative thinness, also, of the population in the United States now is, and must long continue to be, a great obstacle to the progress of religion in that country. I have already stated, that the area of all the territory claimed by its government is somewhat more than 2,000,000 of square miles. Now, leaving out of view the vast region on the Upper Missouri and Mississippi rivers, west and north of Iowa and Wisconsin, and reaching to the Ore HAS HAD TO ENCOUNTER IN AMERICA: 2. gon Mountains; leaving out of view also FROM THE NEWNESS OF THE COUNTRY, THE A SECOND class of obstacles which the voluntary system, or, I should rather say, which religion in general has had to encounter in America, comprehends such as are inseparable from its condition as a new country. the Pacific slope, and looking only to the twenty-six states, three territories, and one district, we have a country of somewhat more than 1,000,000 of square miles, over which the Anglo-American race has more or less diffused itself. But the whole population, including the African race among us, in 1840, was just 17,068,666. That is, upon an average, about seventeen souls to the square mile. If this population From its very nature, the life of a colo- were equally diffused over the entire surnist presents manifold temptations to neg-face of the organized states and territories, lect the interests of the soul. There is the even then it would be difficult enough to separation of himself and his family, if he establish and maintain churches and other has one, from old associations and influ- religious institutions among so sparse a ences; and the removal, if not from abun- population. Still, perhaps, it could be done. dant means of grace, at least from the force A parish of thirty-six square miles, which of that public opinion which often power- would be large enough in point of extent, fully restrains from the commission of would contain 612 souls. One twice as open sin. Now though many of the Amer-large would contain 1224 souls. But alican colonists fled from persecution and from abounding iniquity, such was not the case with all. Then, there is the entering into new and untried situations; the forming of new acquaintances, not always of the best kind; and even that engrossment with the cares and labours attending a man's removal into a new country, especially in the case of the many who have to earn their bread by their own strenuous exertions. All these things hinder the growth of piety in the soul, and form real obstacles to its promotion in a community. though a country would be considered well supplied if it had a pastor for every 1224 souls, still the dispersion of these over seventy-two square miles would necessarily very much curtail the pastor's opportunity for doing good, and prevent the souls under his charge from enjoying the full influence of the Gospel. But the population of the United States is far from being thus equally distributed. Some of the older states are pretty densely settled; not more, however, than is necessary for the easy maintenance of churches, and of a And if such hinderances had a baneful regular and settled ministry. Massachueffect at the outset, they have never ceased setts, the most densely settled of them all, to operate injuriously down to this day. has 102 souls to the square mile; some To say nothing of the foreigners who others, such as Connecticut and Rhode Islcome, year after year, to the American and, have from seventy to eighty; othshores on their way to the Far West, thou-ers, such as New-Jersey, Delaware, Marysands of the natives of the Atlantic slope land, and New-York, will average from annually leave their houses to settle amid forty to fifty. Taking the whole Atlantic the forests of that vast Western region. slope, with the exception of Florida, which In their case there is peculiar exposure to is but little inhabited, the average is twenevil; their removal almost always with-ty-eight, while in the eleven states and two draws them from the powerful influence territories in the Valley of the Mississippi, of neighbourhoods where true religion it is less than ten souls to the square mile. |