General Reflections 



at Portsmouth, has grown rich during the war, by 

 the loss of its own vessels, they having been com- 

 monly insured above value. 



The currency here is extremely bad, not better 

 than that in Rhode Island. 



Having travelled over so large a tract of this vast 

 continent, before I bid a final farewell to it, I must 

 beg the reader's indulgence, while I stop for a 

 moment, and as it were from the top of a high emi- 

 nence, take one general retrospective look at the 

 whole. An idea, strange as it is visionary, has 

 entered into the minds of the generality of mankind, 

 that empire is travelling westward; and every one is 

 looking forward with eager and impatient expecta- 

 tion to that destined moment when America is to 

 give law to the rest of the world. But if ever an idea 

 was illusory and fallacious, I am fully persuaded, 

 that this will be so. 



America is formed for happiness, but not for em- 

 pire: in a course of 1,200 miles I did not see a single 

 object that solicited charity; but I saw insuperable 

 causes of weakness, which will necessarily prevent 

 its being a potent state. 



Our colonies may be distinguished into the south- 

 ern and northern, separated from each other by the 

 Susquehanna and that imaginary line which divides 

 Maryland from Pennsylvania. 



The southern colonies have so many inherent 



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