AGRICULTURAL POPULATION. 51 



to view some practices, utterly unjustifiable in themselves, with 

 a degree of complacency or indifference ; and as unalterable, 

 because they have been so long established. I believe there is 

 only one part of the United States where any thing resembling 

 such a condition of things prevails, or would be permitted ; and 

 there only among a class of beings whose claims to humanity 

 seem not very well established in all minds, and whose degrada 

 tion, on account of their complexion, appears absolutely hopeless. 

 But, even here, this indiscriminate consorting is not common ; 

 nor would it be permitted by any respectable planter. 



This condition of things should certainly save this country 

 from the reproach, if it be one, which some English tourists are 

 disposed to attribute to American manners that of treating the 

 sex with too much courtesy and deference. I cannot bring 

 myself, however, to view the subject with any lightness what 

 ever. My confident conviction is, that the virtue of a community 

 depends on nothing more than on the character of the women. 

 In proportion as they are improved, and treated with deference 

 on account of their sex, the women are brought to respect them 

 selves, and the character of the men is directly improved ; char 

 acter itself becomes valuable to both parties. But in proportion 

 as the condition of women is degraded, and they are considered 

 and treated as mere animals, self-respect is not known among 

 them ; character is of no value ; and the moral condition of such 

 a class, or rather its improvement, is absolutely without hope. 

 Nor is it without its pernicious influences, which must be too 

 obvious to require to be pointed out, upon the classes in the com 

 munity above them. Much fault as some persons have been 

 pleased to find with the deference paid to the sex in the United 

 States, I should be very sorry to see it in the smallest measure 

 abated. I do not believe, taken as a whole, there is a more 

 virtuous population upon earth, than are the women of New 

 England and the Middle States; and nowhere is there a greater 

 decency and propriety of conversation and manners. I speak of 

 these portions of the country in particular, because with them I 

 am intimately acquainted, and have a right to speak with confi 

 dence ; but I have no reason to say that the same respectability 

 of character does not prevail in other parts of the United States. 



I do not claim for my country any thing like an immaculate 

 condition of society ; very far from it : but I do claim for them 

 a highly-improved moral condition ; and have no hesitation in 



