426 "NAttJRAL ANt) fclN^ 



CHAPTER Xm. 



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SxAtE OF. Society. , Freedom : Destroyed in 

 some Countries by the State of Society, pro- 

 duced by the Settlement of America^ the Cause 

 and. Effect of the American IVar^ cannot be 

 preserved by Government^ depends on the State 

 a?td Condition of the People. 



. THE employtnents, the government, 

 tbc religion, the castoms, habits, manners, and 

 condition of the people, constitute their state of 

 society. In the state of society which had ta- 

 ken phjce in America, the. foundations of her 

 freedom were laid, lon.^ before the nations of 

 Europe had any suspicion of what was taking 

 place in the minds of men. Conquest, religion, 

 law, custom, habits, and manners, confirmed by 

 military power, had established a state of socie- 

 ty in Europe, in which the rights of men were 

 obliterated and excluded. The property and 

 povver of a nation had passed into the hands of 

 the sovereign, nobility and church. The body 

 of the people were without property, or any 

 chance or prospect of securing any ; and with- 

 out education or knowledge to form them to any 

 rational principles and sentiments. Without 

 property and vv'ithout principle, they were of 

 little or no consequence, in the view of govern- 

 ment. When the contest was vv'hether the king 

 or the commons should gain more power, the 

 meaning was not at all v/hether the body of the 

 people should be raised out of their degraded 

 state of ignorance, poverty, and insignilicance jr 



