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- 



