HISTORY OF VERMONl'. 429 



state. With these views they came into Ameri- 

 ca. Situation and employment immediately 

 operated to enlarge and confirm the sentiments 

 which their sufterings had first produced. The 

 wilderness was to be cleared up, habitations 

 were to he built, the means of living were to be 

 procured : These occupations were so nccessa^ 

 ry, that they became unavoidable ; and every 

 man who did not mean to perish, was obliged 

 to engage in them. This similarity of situation 

 and employment, produced a similarity of state 

 and condition ; at that time unknown to the 

 rest of the world : The effects of which the first 

 settlers did not at all comprehend themselves. 

 The greater part of them reverenced monarchy, 

 as a sacred institution of heaven ; but they felt 

 at the same time that the honors and distinc- 

 tions it produced, were of no avail to them. 

 To be wise, strong, industrious, and healthy, to 

 have rulers, judges, and generals, the distinc- 

 tions which nature urged, they found to be of 

 the highest importance. But to be called a 

 duke, an earl, or a marquis, the distinctions, 

 which society had set up against nature, they 

 found could.be of no importance to them, and 

 denoted nothing valuable in themselves. Noth- 

 ing was left for them but to pursue the line and 

 course of nature, which was that of utility and 

 safety. And this could produce nothiwg but 

 similarity of situation, rights, privileges, and 

 freedom. Every new settlement, was a confiji;. 

 mation of the same state of society ; and not- 

 withstanding the perpetual interference of royal 

 authority, every thing operated to produce that 

 jKitural, easy, independent situation, and spirit, 



