16 INTRODUCTION. 



will be seen that they have proceeded, pari 

 passu, with our commercial relations. Railways, 

 canals, turnpikes, and steam navigation, have 

 combined in the great work of developing the 

 resources of the nation, and mountains and floods, 

 where but a few years since, solitude maintained 

 her undisputed sway, have, like the wise men of 

 other days, beheld the star of the east, and roll 

 in their fragrant offerings through a thousand 

 tributary streams. 



It is difficult to conceive a contrast more im- 

 pressive than that presented by the condition of 

 Europe at the present day, as contra-distinguish- 

 ed from that of the United States. 



Despotism and absolute rule seem fading in 

 many parts of it before the march of intellect; 

 and the absurd doctrine of the divine right of 

 kings, cowers before the spirit of an enlightened 

 age. 



It is impossible, however, that nations should 

 pass from a condition so servile, or shake off the 

 chains with which "time and long habit have 

 trammelled, not less the mind, than the body, 

 but by the moral and physical suffering incident 

 to the convulsion. 



In every part, therefore, of that continent, we 

 see the people bending under the weight of evils, 

 the concomitants of a strife for freedom; a want 

 of sufficient co-operation to direct and control 

 their patriotic struggle ; disunion amongst them- 

 selves, the thirst of personal aggrandizement, op- 

 posed- to settled governments ; treasuries to 

 meet the exigency of military preparation, and a 

 systematic league of oppression against liberty ; 



