98 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



where strangers were customably taken in. It so hap- 

 pened that an American traveller, by the exchange of 

 a room, made place for the two Englishmen. The lady 

 of the house promised that the matter would be so 

 arranged, but at the same time unreservedly remarked, 

 ' you know/ (as if a thing of common knowledge in 

 Philadelphia) , ' you know that people do not like to 

 inconvenience themselves to oblige a stranger.' 



The behavior of the Philadelphians is for the rest 

 only one among the consequences of the spirit of free- 

 dom, a British inheritance strengthened by removal to 

 American soil and still more by the successful outcome 

 of the war. From of old these were strong and active 

 republicans. Freedom has been, since many years, the 

 genius and the vow of Pensylvania and of all the 

 North American states. Many and various as have 

 been the reasons assigned for the outbreak of the war 

 and the separation of the colonies from the mother- 

 country, it has seemed to me that the true and only 

 reason has been overlooked. There was a set purpose 

 in America to make the land free and any pretext would 

 serve. England might have removed one burden after 

 another, might have given encouragement after en- 

 couragement, but fresh excuses would have been con- 

 stantly sought and found so as to bring about a final 

 breach. It is a matter of wonder to me, in this con- 

 nection, that nobody mentions the prediction spoken of 

 by Kalm * + who heard it as early as 1748 during his 

 stay in America and gives it as a thing well-known. 

 " I have often, he remarks, heard it said openly by Eng- 

 lishmen, and not only by those born in America but 



* Reisen. Deutsche Ausg. II, 401. 



