I79^« ON AMERICA. 99 



The iniquity of the laws that became for a time 

 neceflary to keep up any form of government, eftrang- 

 ed the minds of the citizens of America from the ha. 

 bits csf juilice, and I fear, from the love of it. 



The nature of obligations, by the unhappy ftate of 

 the country, was fo far changed, that he was reckoned 

 the honefl man, who, from principle, as a Whig, delayed 

 or refufed to pay his debt to a Tory, or a Tory to a 

 Whig. The mounds which government had erefted to 

 fecure the obfervance of hone fly in the commercial inr 

 tercourfe of man with inan, w^ere broken down. Truth, 

 honour and juflice were fwept away by the overflow- 

 ing deluge of legal iniquity ; nor have they yet per- 

 feflly re-afTumed their ancient and accuftomed feats. 

 Time and induftry have already, in a g eat degree, re- 

 paired the lofTes of property, which the citizens fufp 

 tained during the war ; but both have hitherto failed 

 in effacing the taint which was then communicated to 

 the principles of the people; nor can the total ablution 

 be expeded till a new generation arifes, unpraclifed ia 

 the iniquities of their fathers. Vidd the Hiltory of the 

 American Revolution, by David Ramfay, M. D. Phir 

 ladelphia 1789. 2 vols 8vo. Vol. 2d p. 136 \3 fparjim. 



1 am lorry to learn from gentlemen on the other fide 

 of tlie Atlantic, that no very ferious attention has hi- 

 therto been paid to the proper inihu(3;ion of youth: 

 That parents being in general much pinched bj the 

 poverty that has fprung from the war, and from pro- 

 ject, do not launch out as they ought in this mofl ef- 

 feftual project:, for the welfare and happinefs of theii* 

 pofterity, and of the nation. 



That the vicious indulgence to children in their non- 

 age, fo common to parents who are harralTed with 

 cares and difficulties of their own, is very common in 

 the United States. 



That the colleges and fchools have not hitherto been 

 put on a refpeflable footing ; and tliat the teachers are 

 paid by falaries, inftead of honorarics from the ftudents, 



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