1808:]: On the Manners and Euftoms of the United States. 
States, although they feem to be emerging 
from the gulph of politics, which have 
hitherto fwallowed up every other purfuit. 
No perfon, who has vifited them, can 
doubt of their genius being adequate to 
works of art and literature, if rouzed trom 
its torpidity. In their theatrical amute- 
ments they make a juft dilcrimination be- 
tween the excellencies and ab(urdities 
of the European drama, notwithftanding 
their own produétions of that kind, fuch 
as Bunker’s Hill, Major -ndré, &c. are 
below mediocrity. Tinat they have a 
genius for painting, the works of a Weft, 
and a Copley wil! prove; but, it mult be 
confeffed, they have flourifhed as exotics, 
who would have perifhed in their indi- 
genous foil, That they have a tafte for 
ufeful inventions is evident from the ef- 
forts of Franklin, Rittenhoufe, Gould, 
&c. and they even affert that the inven- 
tion of the quadrant, attributed to Had- 
ley, an Englifhman, belonged to Godirey, 
an American. 
In mufic I have never known any Ame- 
rican, who could be juftly ftiled an adeot ; 
nor does a true relifh for it feem to pre- 
vail in the United States. A few popu- 
Jar tunes, fuch 2s Yankee, Doodle, Adams 
and Liberty, Wa/bington’s march, Ge. are 
more acceptabl< to them than the moft 
{cientific compofitions. 
Of their architeétural tafte little can be 
faid, as almoft the whole of their public 
edifices have been :defigned by foreign, 
particularly French, ariifts. The aque- 
duét for conveying the water from the 
river Schuylkill through the city of Phi- 
Jadelphia, was defigned, and executed, by 
an Englifhman of the name of Latrobe. 
Thofe private houfes which they build 
are commodious, and well-finifhed ; and 
the brick work in Philadelphia is not to 
be excelled any where. The United States 
have many works of utility, but exhibit 
very few fpecimens of architectural tafte. 
Penn’s mode of building in parallel lines 
prevails in almoft every city and town, 
except New York and Bofton; it ftrikes 
the eye for aday or two ; but after that, 
it is remarked by all travellers, that the 
uniformity gradually deciines into infi- 
pidity, and even difguft. The fame view, 
go where you will, and what diftance 
you will within the extent of the city, — 
mult become tirefome. 
In naval architeéture, the Americans 
have made the greateft progrefs. Their 
veffels, for beauty, fymmetiy of propor- 
tion, and [wiftnefs of failing, are outdone 
by thofe oft no other nation, in fo much 
that a vaft number of them are built for 
4 
125 
fale to other nations ; but they certainly 
are not equal to Britith fhips tor durabi- 
lity. A perfon who had worked upon 
‘timber for upwards of forty years aflured 
me that there was to be found in all Ame, 
rican timber a quantity of fand, which 
never failed in a very few ftrokes of the 
belt plane, to turn its edge torally ; this 
fand, he was convinced from expirience, 
(althoogh he knew net enough of the 
phyfiology of a tree to account tor its 
being there, or of ats effects) mult be 
the occafion of the timber’s rotting io 
foon as it did, notwitnitanding he had 
frequently covered it with every kind of 
varnifh in common ufe. This cefeét, 
therefore, in American veffels fhould be 
imputed to the materials, and not the 
wo: kmen. 
It feems rather a paradox in nature that 
the United States, comprizing an extent 
from north to fouth, nearly equal to that 
of all Eurepe, fhould produce tim- 
ber inferior tothat of Norway, Livonia, 
Ruffia, and the northern parts of Europe ; 
but the timber which comes from the 
Baltic is univerfally efleemed and pur- 
chafed at a much higher price than what 
comes from the United States. This 
mutt afford a convincing proof of the in- 
feriority of the latter, as intereft has a 
ftronger tie upon men’s affections than 
unfounded prejudices; and cheapnefs 1s 
the firit law of commerce: therefore as 
the timber of the United States is cheaper, 
if it nad not been greatly inferior in qua- 
Niy, it would have forced its way into 
the European markets before this time. 
Another very frong: confirmation of the in.» 
feriority of the timber of the United States 
is, that, even when they were Britifh colo- 
nies, the Britifh government imported 
their mafts from the Baltic in preference, 
although the balance of trade with thefe 
powers was very much againft them. 
Whatever may be the natural defects in 
their veffels, yet it is univerfally acknow- 
leiged that no nation has made a greater 
progrefs in the fcience of conftructing 
them. - 
The American is naturally grave, de- 
liberate, and temperate ; enterprizing, ine 
genious ; and if not fcientific, it is owing 
more to a want of education, than a 
want of genius. The love of Jiberty, 
and impatience of controul, break out at 
a very eatly period in their youth, Chil- 
dren are too gay, and too dejighted with 
the profpeét beiore them, to be naturally 
inclined to ftudy ; they are for enjoying 
‘life, when they fir uld be learning how to 
enjoy it. Some degree of refraint ucon 
them 
