1826.] Letters from the United States of North America. 607 



describing what I hare met with el8ewhere> toward the Boutli — in whicJi 

 part of America it was ray chance to hear the said fourth of July ora- 

 tory, of which I complain. 



You are pretty well aware, my dear P. (I hope), that the revolutionary 

 war in British America broke out in the colony of Massachusetts Bay ; 

 the head then, as now, if not also the heart and soul of the New England 

 confederacy. The New England, or Yankee states were then but four : 

 they are now augmented to six, by a subdivision of territory. The 

 people of these New England states are now, and always have been, 

 called Yankees, to distinguish them (here, in America) from the rest of 

 the British North Americans — probably, as I hear, from their being the 

 original settlers of the country; altogether Engliali, and called by the 

 natives, who could not say English, by another sound, like that of Yingees. 

 Before the revolutionary war broke out, they were more troublesome, 

 brave, and loyal than the other colonists ; during that war, more deter- 

 mined and more unappeasable ; and, after that war was done with, more 

 kindly disposed, up to the very day when the last war broke out — in 

 which they were neutral, so far as they could be, even after their terri- 

 tory was invaded by the British — up to that very day, more kindly dis- 

 posed than the rest of the American people, toward the people of the 

 mother country. They are altogether of British, if not altogether of 

 English blood. It is not so with any other part of America. To this 

 day (I speak not only from what I have heard, but from what I have 

 seen) to this day there is hardly a stranger among them — very few 

 British — few of their southern people (for the men of the north-go to the 

 south by turns, day after day, while the men of the south never go to 

 the north, except for curiosity) — few other Americans, therefore, and 

 hardly such a thing as native European, other than British, except in two 

 or three of the larger towns, where you may meet now and then, perhaps, 

 but very rarely, with a stray Frenchman, or Italian. Though separated 

 into six different communities, each under a government peculiar in 

 some features to itself, though all are essentially democratic, with a dash 

 of downright aristocracy at bottom — not of hereditar)' aristocracy, how- 

 ever — they are, in fact, one people ; one family, indeed ; for they are 

 descended, every man of the whole (save the very few foreigners that 

 I spoke of) descended from the Pilgrims, or Fathers, who settled at New 

 Plymouth, two hundred years ago ; or from those who just before the 

 time of the Protector were driven out of England by rehgious or poli- 

 tical outlawry — and by the way, the Lord Protector himself, Cromwell, 

 the chief puritan of his age, with Hampden, were only prevented from 

 going to New England by Charles I. — who, if he had not stayed them 

 on their way to the ship, in which they were to embark, might have 

 escaped the scaffold. They are neither rich nor poor — as a people. I 

 have never yet met with a native American beggar, and with but very 

 few foreign beggars here. The few poor that they have are provided 

 for in a way that — no, I shall not have time to say how that is now ; but, 

 in my next, I may, if I do not overlook my notes. You will be gratified, 

 I am sure : for it is a very singular way, and the very perfection of 

 economy. 



Now for the fourth of July and other festivals, which I am to 

 say something about. In the first place, you are to know that one 

 day, if no more, is put aside every j^ear, throughout New England, 

 and occasionally in a period of war, throughout all the United States, 



3 T 'Z 



