746 



UNITED STATES (CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE). 



m;ils that this abundance of substantial and 

 nourishing diet has had a visible effect upon the 

 human frame. In the western country, in parti- 

 cular, where the climate is good, and rural occupa- 

 tions prevail, the great size and athletic frames of 

 the men have struck foreigners with surprise. 

 Where the means of subsistence are so easily pro- 

 cured, no person able to work need be in want ; 

 but there must be some in all countries, who, from 

 age, or bodily or mental infirmities, are unable to 

 support themselves : the number of these, however, 

 is small, and comfortable provision is made for their 

 support by state legislation. The actual expense 

 is light ; but we have no accurate data for deter- 

 mining its amount in the different states. A beggar 

 is rarely seen in any part of the country. To have 

 a just idea of the advantages which industry en- 

 joys in the United States, we must take into ac- 

 count that, while labour yields larger returns than 

 in any other country, a much smaller proportion of 

 the produce is taken away in the shape of taxes. 

 The revenue of the general government is raised 

 from the customs and the sale of the public lands 

 no direct taxes being paid except state taxes, which 

 are very light. It should also be borne in mind, 

 that the distribution of taxes is regulated on juster 

 principles in the United States than in other coun- 

 tries ; so that the burden falls more directly upon 

 property and consumption. The following state- 

 ments will serve to illustrate these general re- 

 marks: It is estimated by Mr Holmes (Speech in 

 the Senate of the United States, 1832Y that, if the 

 industry of this country were divided into twelve 

 equal parts, we might assign to commerce two, to 

 navigation one, manufactures two, and agriculture 

 seven. The price of agricultural labour must, 

 therefore, regulate that of the rest ; though, of 

 course, the price of other labour will be lower or 

 higher according to the demand, skill, certainty of 

 success, constancy of employment, &c. ; yet it will 

 rise or fall relatively with that of agriculture. The 

 average price of agricultural labour, in 1830, was 

 8 dollars 95 cents per month throughout the 

 United States, in addition to the board of the 

 labourer; in the New England and Middle States, 

 varying from 8 to 10 dollars per month ; and 

 in the Southern and Western, generally, from 6 

 to 10 dollars; while in Georgia it was 12 

 dollars, and in Missouri 15 dollars. Some at- 

 tempts have recently been made to estimate, with 

 more accuracy than had previously been done, the 

 total amount paid by each individual for expenses 

 of government, including the federal and state 

 budgets, the amount paid for public schools, the 

 clergy, the poor, and all incidental expenses. 

 Some statements in the Revue Britannique for 

 June, 1831, have elicited estimates on this subject 

 from Mr Cooper and from general Bernard. The 

 writer in the Revue Britannique had calculated the 

 sum of the public charges paid by each inhabitant 

 of the United States at thirty-five francs, and that 

 of each person in France at thirty-one francs. Mr 

 Cooper makes this amount fourteen francs five 

 centimes (or 2 dollars 64 cents) ; and general Ber- 

 nard, who, however, leaves out the ecclesiastical ex- 

 penditure, eleven francs forty-seven centimes (2 dol- 

 lars 16 cents), or, exclusive of that paid for the 

 public debt, six francs eight centimes (1 dollar 27 

 cents). An estimate by Francis Lieber, in the 

 Courrier des Etats Unis, makes the local charge on 

 each citizen of Massachusetts, where the taxes are 

 higher than in the rest of the Union, as follows : 



Town taxes, for schools, roads, &c. ... 2 00 



County taxes, for gaols, courts, county roads, &c. 60 



st:iti> taxea, for militia, state governments, &c. BO 



Paid for clergy o 60 



Total 3 jo 



An estimate in the same journal calculates the loral 

 charges upon a citizen of New York at 1 dollar 75 

 cents. If these estimates are correct, the total charge 

 for a citizen of Massachusetts would be, after the year 

 1832, 4 dollars 30 cents, and for a citizen of New 

 York, 2 dollars 55 cents. Whatever the amount may 

 be, it is very certain that the public charges are in no 

 part of the United States felt as a burden. " Instead 

 of sanguinary executions and injustice, we find in 

 America a- penal code, singularly mild, and cautious 

 to an extreme in taking away human existence, a 

 system of punishment formed with a view to the 

 prevention of crime, and not in a vindictive spirit, 

 and adapted for the reclamation of the criminal 

 rather than for his destruction. Instead of spolia- 

 tion or pillage, we see no country in which the pos- 

 session and disposal of property are better protected, 

 or its acquisition by judicious industry better se- 

 cured. And, above all, there is no country in 

 which religion and its ministers are more generally 

 respected and supported by the mass of the popula- 

 tion, although without compulsory provision, and 

 where the lives and example of the clergy more 

 nearly approach to those of their great primitive 

 models." Ouseley's Statistics of the United States. 

 See our articles Crime, Criminal Law, Prison 

 Discipline, Temperance Societies. 



There is no national church in the United States ; 

 the support of religion is left to the voluntary con- 

 tributions of individuals. The number of clergy, 

 men at present is estimated at about 13,000. Many 

 of these, however, among the Methodists, are con- 

 tinually travelling about, and preaching in different 

 places; and there are, besides, many persons who 

 officiate as clergymen, although engaged in some 

 other occupation. In 1830, Boston, with a popu- 

 lation of 61,392, had forty-three churches; New 

 York, with 203,000 inhabitants, upwards of one 

 hundred; Philadelphia, witha population of 167,811, 

 had one hundred churches ; and Cincinnati, with 

 24,831 inhabitants, twenty-three. For further in- 

 formation concerning tne United States, see Ward- 

 en's Account of the United States of North America 

 (Edinburgh, 1819, 3 vols., 8vo.) ; Seybert's Sta- 

 tistical Annals of the United States (1 vol., 4to., 

 Philadelphia, 1818) ; Pitkin's Statistical View of 

 the United States (2d edition, 1 vol., 8vo., New 

 York, 1817) ; Bristed's Resources of the United 

 States (New York, 1818) ; Darby's View of the 

 United States (Philadelphia, 1828) ; Ebeling's 

 Geography and History of North America (in 

 German, Hamburg, 179399, 5 vols.); Flint's 

 Geography of the Mississippi Valley, with a View 

 of the Physical Geography of the Atlantic States 

 (2d edition, Cincinnati, 1831);* Hinton's History 

 and Topography of the United States (2 vols., 4to., 

 London, 1832); Everett's America; Lyman's Di- 



A great mass of statistical matter is to be found in the re- 

 ports made annually by the head of each department to con- 

 gress, and in the reports of the different committees of con- 

 gress, all of which are printed. In 1832, the fruit of n 

 statistical inquiry was presented to the public in the printed 

 memorials and reports of two conventions, held, the one at 

 New York, the other at Philadelphia, on the eub.iect of the 

 contemplated modifications of the tariff. The American Alma- 

 nac, printed at Boston, and the National Calendar, printed at 

 Washington, also contain full statistical tables on all subjects 

 relating to the United States. 



