28 Clinton's introductory discourse. 



be expected to produce those literary worthies who have illuminated 

 the other hemisphere. 



History justifies the remark, that free governments, although happier 

 in themselves, are as oppressive to their provinces as despotic ones. It 

 was a common saying in Greece, that a freeman at Sparta was the 

 freest man, and a slave the greatest slave in the world. This remark 

 may be justly applied to the ancient republics which had provinces 

 under their control. The people of the parent country were free, and 

 those remote were harassed with all kinds of exactions, borne down by 

 the high hand of oppression, and under the subjection of a military 

 despotism. The colonial system of modern times is equally calculated 

 to build up the mother country on the depression of its colonies. That 

 all their exports shall go to, and all their imports be derived from, it, is 

 the fundamental principle. Admitting occasional departures from this 

 system, is it possible that an infant country, so bandaged and cramped, 

 could attain to that maturity of growth which is essential to the promo- 

 tion and encouragement of literature 1 Accordingly, we do not find in 

 any colony of modern times any peculiar devotion to letters, or any 

 extraordinary progress in the cultivation of the human mind. The 

 most fertile soil — the most benign climate — all that nature can produce 

 and art can perfect, are incompetent to remove the benumbing effects 

 which a provincial and dependent position operates upon the efforts of 

 genius. 



These difficulties, so embarrassing, were augmented from other causes. 

 The population of this colony was derived from several nations. 

 The original emigrants were Dutch. The next in order of time 

 were from England. The revocation of the edict of Nantz, and the 

 persecutions in the Palatinate, occasioned considerable migrations 

 from France and Germany: Scotland and Ireland also furnished a 

 great accession of inhabitants. Four different languages were for a 



