Clinton's introductory discourse. 23 



While we look down upon these aspersions, it is due to candour, and a 

 just estimate of our own character, to acknowledge that, generally speak- 

 ing, we are far behind our European brethren in the pursuits of litera- 

 ture. The enterprising spirit, which distinguishes our national character, 

 has exhibited itself in every shape except that of a marked devotion to 

 the interests of science. There is nothing in the fixed operation of phy- 

 sical or moral causes, nothing in our origin, in our migration, or in our 

 settlement ; nothing in our climate, our soil, our government, our religion, 

 our manners, or our morals, which can attach debility to our minds, or 

 can prevent the cultivation of literature. Two hundred years have 

 nearly elapsed since the first European settlement was made in this state ; 

 and if, in the course of two centuries, labouring under difficulties of vari- 

 ous kinds, we have not attained the first elevation in the ranks of know- 

 ledge, surely sufficient reasons may be assigned without impeaching the 

 character of our minds, or degrading us in the scale of being. Although 

 in a review of these causes, which I shall now attempt with all possible 

 brevity, my remarks relate particularly to this state, they will apply, 

 generally speaking, to the United States at large. 



Ancient migrations were generally the offspring of want. Sometimes 

 a whole people departed from their natal soil, and sought for better des- 

 tinies in a milder climate, and a more prolific land. Sometimes, when 

 population became surcharged, and subsistence difficult, a portion of a 

 nation would change its habitation : at other times, colonies were planted 

 for the purpose of retaining conquered countries, and checking the pre- 

 datory incursions of barbarian hordes. A different principle seems to 

 have led to the first colonization of America. The discovery of this 

 western world appears to have infused a new spirit into Europe : the 

 imaginations of men were dazzled with fabulous stories of dorados, or 

 mountains of gold, and of fountains by which the human race flourished 

 in immortal youth. In this land the god of wealth was supposed to have 



