ANNIVERSARY OF INDEPENDENCE. 131 



or from meetings at which orations were made 

 in honour of the day. 



I walked much about beholding the animat- 

 ed scene, with no other inconvenience than 

 the difficulty of threading my way through so 

 dense an assemblage, and I think it deserving 

 of particular remark, that in this congregated 

 mass of many tens of thousands, I saw no per- 

 son intoxicated, witnessed no quarrelling or 

 disorder, nor heard an angry expression direct- 

 ed from one to another. 



Whether this arose from the exhilarating 

 nature of the occasion, disposing every mind 

 to none but the more kindly feelings, or was a 

 consequence of the temperament of the Ameri- 

 can people, distinguishing them from those of 

 countries in which drunkenness and outrage 

 are the too certain attendants on such conven- 

 tions, I do not pretend to determine ; but I 

 am very sure that in my own country, a pro- 

 miscuous congregation of the people, much 

 less numerous than what I this day saw in 

 New York, would not readily pass over with- 



