That should have been, like some well treasured flower, zens in this state, and we suppose in all our Southern Worn in the genial bosom, left to pale,

of the Revolution.

House of Burgesses to Faneuil Hall and Faneuil Hall to the House of Burgesses"—with a just and patriotic pride. After all, however, we apprehend that too many of our people entertain (perhaps unconsciously,) some unworthy prejudices against those of New England, which we should be happy to remove. It is a duty, indeed, we conceive, which the inhabitants of any state owe to those of any other with whom they have any relations whatever, to know, and, as far as possible, to appreciate them according to their value. But we are bound to these people by the strictest and most intimate bonds-by the federal compact itself--which we all cherish as the source of our political prosperity-as the golden cord" of our political lie. We are embarked with them, as it were, in the same vessel of state--so far at least as the general government is concerned--higher places of education are fostered with a liberal patronage. bound on a long voyage (a very long one we trust); and it becomes us, accordingly, for both our sakes, to cultivate a better acquaintance with them--especially if we have any reason to hope that a more intimate knowledge of their character may make us better pleased with their company.

With these sentiments, we have been happy to light upon the articles before us, written as they are with good sense and good humor, and in a spirit which we cordially approve; and should be glad to lay them before our readers, almost in extenso, for their benefit. They are, however, rather too long for that; and we shall satisfy ourselves with only extracting some of the most material parts of them-and adding, perhaps, a few comments of our own.

Our writer begins his first article by giving us a very pleasing picture of the actual state of New England, and its inhabitants, (including a sketch of its origin,) which is no doubt substantially true, in the following words:

"When left to our own imaginations, we simpletons of New England fancy that we find very sufficient reason to be satisfied with our history, our condition, and one another. More than almost any other people, we are entitled to call our history our own. Almost as much as any other, we are a homogeneous race; scarcely the Chinese more so. With the exception of a few Huguenot families who came over at the close of the seventeenth century, and who, from religious sympathy, and other causes, were easily grafted on the primeval vine, we are all descendants of English, established here within thirty years from the earliest seulement. We have not so much as a city, which is a colluvies of foreign and domestic elements. The interior feeds the seaports. In the principal of these are a few Irish, mostly arrived since the war, but not sufficient in number to be of any account in estimating the character of the population; and of other emigrants, or descendants of emigrants, not belong ing to the original stock, we have almost literally none.

"This history of our soil and society, which is at the same time the history of our own progenitors, we should be utterly unwil ling (with all respect for the subjects of other histories) to exchange for any other which we read. Had our fathers come hither to secure a condition of more affluence or more ease, there would have been no fault to find with their enterprise. Had they come, because they had not succeeded in getting an honest living at home, this would have been no discreditable motive; and other communities, founded in such a beginning, have risen afterwards to great respectability. But they came for a much better reason than either. They betook themselves to this "outside of the world," to secure to themselves and theirs the liberty of thought and worship. Is there any nobler impulse, under which men can make struggles and sacrifices; and does history tell of another society, which may boast of a similar

origin?

charter over with them, and neither they, nor their descendants, ever abandoned the design, till it was consummated by the war "The progress of their institutions was the development of the capacities of an intelligent, industrious, religious, heroic race. They won upon the aborigines by their fair and liberal dealing, rather than through the resources of their superior civilization. "I think I can clearly say," said Governor Winslow, of Ply. mouth, in 1676,"that before these present troubles broke out, the English did not possess one foot of land in this colony, but what was obtained by honest purchase of the Indian proprie tors." Always watchful of the great interest, and prodigal of to the aggressions of the parent country, and now beggaring their every other, now they are seen opposing an undismayed front treasury, and lavishing their best blood, in the boldest expedi tions against the common enemy, the French. Meanwhile, noall measures for building up a strong and prosperous common. thing diverts them, for a moment, from the pursuit, at home, of wealth. Not only is a competent education provided for every child, at the public cost; but his guardians are compelled, under a penalty, to accept for him the advantage thus afforded. The The town corporations, covering with their several jurisdictions the whole territory, are charged with whatever may be done, by municipal regulation, for the security and comfort of a neigh higher powers. The ministers of the law are made independent borhood, and are strictly held to their responsibility by the of official dictation and of popular caprice; and religion, by a sufficient but cautious provision for the maintenance of its institutions, is aided to enforce its sanctions on the public mind. man must be querulous to complain of. Dwelling among our "Under such auspices, a state of things has grown up, which a own people," of these six states, we find them a very good peo. ple to dwell with. That Massachusetts, for instance, is not a decidedly ineligible home, might be partly conjectured from the fact, that it numbers eighty-seven inhabitants to the square mile, while the Ancient Dominion, blacks included, counts but twenty-five; and the most populous State out of New England, New York, gives to the same space a census of forty-six, little more than half that of the Bay State. With no natural wealth for exportation, except what consists in granite and ice,-" absolutely nothing but rocks and ice," as of late a distinguished southern statesmen emphatically testified, we yet make shift to keep the wolf, Want, from the door. We take good care of those who cannot take care of themselves; but no one, among

us, so he has but health, needs to fall into poverty. Most things that may be honestly done for a living, are done by one or ano. ther of us. We fish, we manufacture, we till, ("credat Ju daus!") we trade, and we study. Our swapping transactions sometimes employ no little capital, and often carry us a long way from home. The commodore of a Russian exploring expedition lately fell into a fog, just as he had come to flatter him. self that he had about reached the world's end, and written his name for immortality with the Vancouvers and Cooks. When it cleared away, he found himself in a fleet of Yankee craft, the commander of one of which offered to pilot him to an excellent roadstead hard by, the old familiar haven of himself and his compeers. Our colleges are in that condition, that, in addition to the granite and ice above commemorated, we find ourselves able to send into other states a few professional men, who, we learn, find a market, and every year, about commence. ment time, as assortment of teachers in the different ranks, from instructers in the common schools, to presidents and professors in the higher institutions."

But notwithstanding all this, our writer complains (very good-humoredly) that "there is reason to fear that the character of the New England population does not stand altogether well with the multitude of their brethren." And he proceeds to glance at the origin of the "existing prejudice" against them, which he seems disposed to ascribe to their federal politics-or rather, perhaps, he means, to the policy of some of our southern politicians, (for he does not explain himself very clearly on this point; and it is, he 66 says, an invidious inquiry, and we decline it.") In this, however, we think he is a little mistaken. At least, we are somewhat inclined to suspect that we might trace it more truly, though more remotely, to the very fact which he states so strongly, and in which he glories so justly, that the people of New England are the descendants of those ancient puritans, of whom the world was not worthy," and whom the world, therefore, has never been able to understand, or appreciate, as it ought to

The founders of the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts differed in some particulars; the former being for the most part of the class of yeomen and artisans, while among the latter were many men of fortune, some belonging to noble families, and numbers educated in all the scholarship and refinements of the time. But, essentially, they were the same sort of men. They had been adherents at home of the same cause, and they came across the water under the same impulse. Arrived here, though independent of each other, both proceeded to build up a society in substantially the same manner; for both went to work do, to this day. We, too, of the south, and especially in the way which their Anglo-Saxon instincts prompted. They we of Virginia, are the descendants, for the most part, did not pitch their first tent in this chilly land of promise, till of the old cavaliers-the enemies and persecutors of they had set up the safeguards of popular freedom. They had hardly looked to the necessities of life, when they provided for those old puritans-and entertain, perhaps, unwittingly, the necessities of learning and religion. Taking prudent care something of an hereditary and historical antipathy of the beginning, they looked steadily and hopefully on to the against the children, for their fathers' sakes. "An end. It is past a doubt, that the Massachusetts colonists contemplated, from the first, the establishment of an independent comerror of this kind,” (and no doubt the more if it is found monwealth. With this view they insisted on bringing their "capable of producing a political effect,") "bears”

it."

as in North Carolina, peddling is carried on by native citizens,
if a fraud occurs, the sufferer, under his double stimulus of
personal indignation and sectional patriotism, is extremely likely
to impute to New England what is, in fact, chargeable to the
next county to that where he is complaining.
shall be presented; saying nothing further about them mean-
"We will plead, then, to the nutmegs, whenever some case
while, than that the general charge of dishonest transactions
would really have seemed to us antecedently more probable, if
some other form of dishonesty had been alleged instead of this.
For we know of no tree and no art existing in New England,
from and by which a tolerable counterfeit of the fruit nutmeg
could be produced. It is neither one of the geometrical figures,
nor a combination of two or more. We apprehend that the
lathe which could shape its likeness, is yet to be invented; and
though the Yankee pen-knife, like the Yankee axe, is a potent
tool, it would for this use require an amount of time which could
not profitably be afforded. Further, we suppose that, all over
the world, people who buy nutmegs, buy them for their aro
which would afford an imitation, capable of cheating the most
matic property; and of this we never heard of any substance,
unpractised olfactory organ. Our friends do us more than jus
tice in one view, while in another they do us less. Wise as they
give us credit for being, we are not equal to work like this."

indeed "a charmed life," or dies only by slow degrees. and we have never yet seen an indictment with specifications, to But this, too, is an "invidious" topic, and "we decline put the party accused on his defence. Dishonest men, we sup pose, are the growth of every soil. We have no difficulty in allowing that such may have been born in New England; and But our writer now proceeds to consider some of the on the other hand, if no fraudulent bargain was ever made by a charges which are usually brought against the people native of Kentucky or South Carolina, it is time that those states asserted for themselves a place in the eye of the world of New England, by those of our other states; and to and history, to which no other community, as far as we know, answer them in his way. And the first of these, and has ever yet ventured to lay claim. That dishonest men, of that which he justly regards as "decidedly the most New England birth, should have practised their arts more freely prominent," is the allegation that they are generally of rovers is generally found to embrace a portion of those who abroad than at home, is also a very credible thing. The class sharp and trickish, and much more cunning than honest. were in no good esteem at their starting-place; and bad men And to prove (somewhat unnecessarily, perhaps,) that never conduct themselves so ill as in places where they are but this allegation is made, he quotes Captain Hamilton as transient sojourners. Also, when a wrong has been committed saying, "The whole Union is full of stories of Jona- by such foul birds of passage, there is always danger that it may be laid at some door where it ought not to lie; for the inthan's cunning frauds." He gives us also a pleasant pas-jured has small opportunity to examine the baptismal record of sage from a clever satirical jeu d'esprit, entitled "Me-him whom he finds occasion to revile; and where, for instance, moirs of a Nullifier; Written by Himself: by a Native of the South;" (published at Columbia, S. C.) in which the writer amusingly imagines the ghost of a Yankee pedler, named Virgil Hoskins, brought before Judge Rhadamanthus, in the world of shades, where the books are opened, and the following charge, among others, read out against him: "June 27th, 18-. To selling, in the course of one pedling expedition, 497,368 wooden nut megs, 281,532 Spanish cigars made of oak-leaves, and 647 wooden clocks." He adds, also, that the Rev. R. C. Postell, of Orangeburg, S. C. (a well-informed and well-intentioned individual, he doubts not, as becomes his profession,) treats "the art of making nutmegs and bacon out of wood," as notoriously practised among our "country people" (of New England.) Nay, Mr. Senator Preston, ("cujus ab ore melle dulcior fluit or tio,") to please the plebeians about him, has actually inserted this charge of the wooden nutmegs in his speech on the Rail Road, saying: "We of the south are mistaken in the character of these people, when we think of them only as pedlers in horn flints and bark nutmegs." And Mr. Hardin, too, of Kentucky, in debate with Mr. Cushing of Massachusetts, is represented in the reports of the discussion, to have "hit at cod-fishery, wooden nutmegs, and tin peddling; and said, that the gentleman from Massachusetts came from a section of country, where the people could see a dollar with the naked eye, as far as he could through a telescope." Here, then, we have the charge, with some of the specifications, distinctly set out; and we must add in candor, (though our reviewer may perhaps regard our confession on this point, as proof that we also are under the influence of this inveterate prejudice,) that we have always been disposed to believe that the charge was partly, or partially, true, and that the specifications were probable, or at least laughable enough. And how now does our reviewer undertake to answer the accusation? Why, not exactly as we think he ought to have done; that is, by confessing it in part, (so far, at any rate, as the pedlers are concerned,) and denying it for the rest, (as to the great body of his countrymen,) but he rather seems inclined to dodge the charge itself, while he cavils at one of the specifications-to wit, that of the wooden nutmegs, which, some how or other, appears to have nettled him (as they say in New England) the most. Thus he says:

(By the way, there is no danger, we think, of any one of the craft undertaking to do this, as he would readily calculate that it might tend, though somewhat remotely, to bring down the price of the article which he vends, in our mundane market, to his own loss.) This, how ever, is only pleasantry, and, of course, well enough; but he adds, gravely:

"We do not undertake to refute the doctrine of the nutmegs." [Yet we shall find presently that he does.] "There are no resources in logic to prove a negative. Accordingly, in reason and in law, the burden of proof is thrown on the other side,

Now all this is, no doubt, very logical, and certainly very pleasant; but we do not think that it proves the point. At least we must still think that the fabrication of wooden nutmegs is not absolutely beyond the reach of a Yankee's wit. The lathe, or even the pen-knife, we suppose, may be brought to play very rapidly and effectively on white pine, or bark, (Mr. Preston, we see, says the nutmegs are made of bark.) Our country people, too, who may fancy to buy them, have sometimes bad colds, or may be persuaded to think that they have. Or, if it is necessary to give the wooden imitation the peculiar "aromatic property" which belong to the ori ginal, there is the ever-ready treacle, with other "appliances," for the nonce. The fabrication, then, of such things as wooden nutmegs, is not so impossible as our writer seems to suppose; and if it is not, then we hold that the specification is probably true-as the idea of it could hardly have been imagined without.

But allow that our writer refutes the specification of the nutmegs; has he even attempted to answer that of the horn-flints, or the wooden hams, or the wooden clocks, and all the rest? And are we, then, to take it for granted that he admits these? Or if he denies them, cannot they be proved against him? We will not vouch ourselves for the horn-flints; nor the wooden hams; but we think we have actually seen some of the wooden clocks-made to sell and not to go or to go only while the vendors stayed-and we have heard innumerable stories of such things. And are all these stories false? Why the writer must think that we of the South have the inventive faculty of the Arabians, to fabricate so many tales as he would have to give us credit for, upon the supposition. But really, "we are basis of truth to place our fictions upon, and our sto not equal to work like this." At least, we require a ries, accordingly, must be "founded on fact."

But say that he has answered and refuted all the specifications, has he answered the charge itself? Why it. At least we think that he has admitted enough so far from that, we think that he has almost admitted charge against his countrymen, to all the extent that we (though with evident reluctance,) to countenance the have ever been disposed to believe it. Thus, he acknowledges that "dishonest men" "may have been

his rights. When he buys, he has first compared his wants with his means, and he does not intentionally give more for a thing than it is worth to him. What he has to sell, he has worked hard for, with a view to put it to some good use; and when he parts with it, he expects to get its value. This, it must be owned, is, for a general rule, the habit of the country, and not merely the custom of the poorest. A load of wood is driven to your door by a person, who perhaps might turn out, on inquiry, to be a selectman of his town, possibly even a representative in the General Court. When you have paid your fifteen or twenty dollars for your fuel, he expects you to pay him further veyed. Why should he not? It is his right. He paid the money the little piece of silver which it cost him to have the wood surto the licensed measurer, for your greater security. There is ness in your grudging to refund it. There is no reason whatever why he should give it to you. There is reason why he should keep it, to increase what he means to give in some other quar ter. And if you follow him home the same day, it is very likely that you find him visiting some sick or aged neighbor's house, with a present, (the fruit of his expedition,) or going into townmeeting to vote for or urge some liberal appropriation, a full share of which is to come out of his pocket, for schools, roads, or alms-houses.

born in New England," and may have emigrated from it, or gone down peddling into our other states, where they may, very naturally, have become more dishonest still. "The class of rovers," he says, "is generally found to embrace a portion of those who were in no good esteem at their starting-place, and bad men never conduct themselves so ill as in places where they are but transient sojourners." Very true; and this accounts, we think, in part, for the fact that these "rovers" are such superior cheats, as all the world allows them to be. We may add, however, that they are naturally perhaps, and almost necessarily, more sharp-no meanness in his demanding it back; there would be meanwitted, and certainly better edicated than our poor country-people, on whom they come to prey. This, of course, "tempts their attempts," and secures their success. Accordingly, as we see, they easily eclipse all competitors in their line; and the idea which our writer so gravely suggests, that any of our North Carolina neighbors, who happen to engage in peddling, may peradventure pass off some of their own "tricks" for theirs, is clearly altogether absurd. They have evidently a turn, or a knack, for such things, that is absolutely peculiar and inimitable.

"We should like, for the curiosity's sake, to see some system

of ethics, which should show it to be otherwise than a duty, to spare that one may have to spend and give. We should be gratified to see a set argument to prove, what in some quarters is so constantly taken for granted, that it is praiseworthy to be so thoughtless and easy in one's money affairs, as to have nothing to bestow when some good object requires an appropriation. The New England notion of the honorableness and the uses of economy is different. Practical illustrations of it, as it is actu ally entertained, might be had in any plenty for the seeking. Let us see how things go on, in this respect, in Boston. We have no more convenient way of getting at a general idea of them, than by making an abridgment from the Appendix to President Quincy's Address on the second centennial anniversary of the settlement of that city.

The truth is, it must be acknowledged, (and we are sorry that our writer has not candidly acknowledged at once,) that our Yankee adventurers, who visit the South and West to make their fortunes, are generally the sharpest blades in the world. Like the Greeks amongst the ancient Romans, or the French amongst the modern English, they are ingenious, versatile, and ready to turn their hand to any thing and every thing "President Quincy gives a list in specific sums of, 1. 'Amounts that comes in their way-for money. But when were received from the liberality of the citizens of Boston towards such characters over-honest? When were they not, objects of a moral, religious, or literary character, chiefly within in fact, predisposed to be knaves? We refer here, how- the last thirty years, making a total of $1,155,986; of which ever, chiefly and almost entirely, to the race of ped- $354,400 were given to the Massachusetts Hospital; $222,696 to Harvard College; $79,582 to the Female Orphan Asylum, and lers, and id omne genus; for we are aware, of course, $75,000 to the Athenæum. 2. Contributions for the relief of sufas well as our writer, that all our visiters from New ferers in five northern towns by fire, amounting to $67,462. 3. England are not of this description; but we have in- Moneys raised within the time specified by various contribudeed, occasionally, as he reminds us, learned professors, tinguished merit, or for the relief of men eminent for their pubtions, or by donations of individuals, for the patronizing of dispious clergymen, and others, from that quarter, whom lic services, (testamentary bequests not included,) $108,400. 4. we are always glad to see coming amongst us, and set-Amounts collected for objects of general charity, or for the protling themselves down in our state, where (and espe- influence of various religious societies in the metropolis, (not motion of literary, moral, or religious purposes, by or under the cially if they happen to get some of our good and including the particular annual objects of expenditure of each charming women for wives,) they may come to be soft-society,) $469,425. The sum total of particulars thus collected is ened and sweetened a little, in time, and do extremely well.

$1,801,273. Mr. Quincy adds; that

The object on this occasion has not been completeness, which was known to be impracticable, but as near an approximation to it as was possible. How far short the statement in this item is from the real amount collected, may be gathered from this fact, that information was requested for the amount collected within the last thirty years; yet more than half the sum stated in this item arose from collections made within the last ten years. As a further illustration, it may not be improper to state, that, within the last twelve years, five citizens of Boston have deceased, whose bequests for objects exclusively of public interest or benevolence, when united, amount to a sum exceeding $300,000, and that one of these, during the last twenty years of his life, is known to have given away, towards similar objects, a sum equal to $10,000 annually."

But while we are constrained to sanction the charge thus far, we are by no means inclined to extend it, with Mr. Hardin, and many others, to all the people of New England en masse. It is natural enough, indeed, to judge of them all by the samples which they send us; but it is still unjust; and we need only visit them (as we have done very agreeably,) and see them as they are at home, in their own land, to disabuse our minds of the mistake. Then we see at once that our brethren of that bright and beautiful region-though still, perhaps, generally a little keener, or, at least, a little nicer in their notions and dealings than we of the South; and though they have no doubt more sharpers of all sorts among it were brought down to the present day, it would have to inthem, (owing, we suppose, to the greater difficulty of clude, in a large variety of memoranda of the same kind, the living,) are yet, in the main, as upright and honest in munificent establishment of the Blind Asylum, by a long-tried all the transactions of life as ourselves, or as any peo-before the time when we are writing, of free lectures in departpublic benefactor still living, and the institution, announced just ple in the world. ments of science and literature, with an endowment of $250,000. by a young Bostonian, who made the last arrangements for the execution of his plan in a distant city of Asia, whither he had gone for the purpose of enriching his countrymen with observa

But our writer now proceeds to notice some other charges, of a more general nature, which have been preferred against the population of New England, in various publications, and answers them, we think, in general, with great ease, and in the most satisfactory manner. We commend the following passage, more particularly, to the consideration of all our readers:

"An impression has gone abroad that the inhabitants of New England are an excessively frugal people. It ought better to be known why, when, and how far they are frugal. It is a point of honor with a New England man to maintain his family and pay his debts. Is he any the worse for that? and how shall he do it, living, as he does, in a country of harsh climate and penurious soil? He cannot do it, except by persevering industry, and a methodical and prudent management of his affairs. If he is to be honest, he must be careful. Accordingly, it is his custom, in pecuniary transactions to avoid waste, and to stand for

Our writer himself adds:

"This collection of facts was made in the autumn of 1830. If

tions of his own mind.

"But this, it will be said, is Boston, the chief seat of New England wealth, and a place wrought upon by influences of its own. It is Boston; and what then? Boston is a mere abstraction of New England, and a large portion of the men who are there most public-spirited and useful, have brought thither the principles and habits, which make them so, from some interior place of their nativity." The same economy, in fact, pervades all their towns; that is, all their country.

These facts speak for themselves, and need no com. ment from our pen. Indeed we would thank any one, with all our hearts, who would furnish us with a list of donations from private persons for public purposes, made in our own state, for the last century, or from the foun

Now it is not for us, perhaps, to compose such great strifes; but we must say that we think our warriors are both right-and both wrong. Indeed to settle the point between them, like arbitrators, by a compromise, we should say that "enthusiasm" (though that is not exactly the right word neither,)" was the" leading "cha racteristic of" the New England "fathers," but that they certainly had a twang of "fanaticism "about them too. The truth is, we should rather say, the spirit of those noble men, was, in the main, the spirit of an exalted freedom. The "basis" of their character was undoubtedly religion-as it is taught in the word of God-but in the form in which it was held by the Puri

dation of our commonwealth, which might match with that which our reviewer has given us for Boston alone. We pass over our writer's remarks upon the charge, "that the New Englanders are an unchivalrous people," partly because, as he says, the term itself is a little indefinite, and partly because, whatever it may mean, we suppose all the world has come to know that their courage, if not of the most "fiery quality," is yet of the most unquestionable proof. Indeed the valor which they have so often displayed in the field and on the wave, from the capture of Louisburg, which called forth the splendid compliment of Lord Chatham, to the close of the late war, requires no trumpet to proclaim it; and they may well be allowed to treat any impeach-tans of that day. They valued above all things,-even ment of it now with calm contempt. But we must give a portion of what he says in answer to another charge against them, on which they require, perhaps, some defence; to wit, that of their coldness.

it may

life itself,-the right of conscience, which they justly esteemed as the best part of the rights of man; and which they nobly determined to maintain through all time, and to all extremity. But their "religion," if "first pure," was not "then peaceable." Indeed they were not allowed to enjoy it in peace-witness the records of the Star Chamber, to which our writer refers. They resolved, therefore, to throw off the shackles of the British government, and plant themselves in the new world, where they might have all things their own way. But to have all things their own way, it was sometimes necessary to compel "the strangers within their gates" to conform to their laws and customs in all points. This naturally led to a little intolerance; but that was the common fault of the whole world at the time; and their laws and proceedings against the Quakers,. (with which the writer in the "Monthly Magazine" reproaches them,) were in fact no worse than those of our own loyal commonwealth, at the same period. What was worse, however, it led also, by an imperceptible transition, to a little dogmatism, and dictation; and from justly insisting upon thinking and acting for themselves, they came, (at least some of them,) unconsciously and unconscionably, to claim the right of thinking and acting for others also. The same spirit, too, naturally, and almost necessarily, impelled individuals, and some times companies of them, into the extravagance of fanaticism, properly so called.

"For a cold people," says he, "they have unquestionably been apt to kindle in time past rather easily; and that too sometimes at nothing more heating, than the prospect of some distant or abstract good or evil. Cautious and reserved, perhaps be truly said, that they are; and these are qualities of manner, which, however objectionable in point of gracefulness and power of conciliating, are often found connected with qualities of cha racter, of the substantial class of self-respect and love of consistency. But it can hardly be among a merely unfeeling, phleg matic people, that so many of the great benevolent enterprises of the day have had their origin. With the wisdom of those enterprises, all or any, we have nothing now to do. But it is scarcely to be denied that they are enterprises of an adventurous and comprehensive sort, indicating something of a sanguine temperament on the part of their projectors; and the more indeed any of them can be shown to be of a visionary character, the less do they agree with the theory of their having proceeded from a people merely calculating and frigid. "The truth is, there are certain traits, prominent in the New England character, such as love of order and the habit of selfcontrol, which hasty observers mistake for tokens of a want of earnestness. Was there ever a more sublime rage than the people within a day's march of Boston were in, on the 19th of April, 1775? Yet we lately heard an eminent South-western statesman amusing himself with the fact of their going to work, the day after, giving and taking depositions respecting the circumstances of the affray. Why not? What did this show, but their love of right, order, and law. not suspended by the sanguinary work of a revolution? They had fought for a cause, and they wished to make that good cause appear. They were not a riotous people, ready to go to blows with or without reason. Such were the fathers of New England; and they cerThey owed it to their respect for themselves ond others, to show that they had not unnecessarily shed blood, at the free rate they tainly succeeded, beyond all legislators before them, in did. It was no repenting of the conflict, or shrinking from its impressing their own character, strongly and indelibly, consequences, or its prosecution; for at the moment these de- upon all their race. Accordingly, we find in our bre positions were taking, the country was pouring down its regi-thren of that region, at the present time, all the leadments of minute men, under such epauletted justices of the peace as could be spared, to seal up the invader hermetically

within Boston neck."

ing traits of their progenitors, to approve, to admire, and we must add, sometimes to condemn. Thus we All this is certainly very fair, and it may, perhaps, find among them, in general, the same spirit of religion justify our writer in concluding, as he does, with Mr. which distinguished their ancestors, with the same Sprague, whose words he adopts, that "Enthusiasm was knowledge to discern their rights, and the same courage the characteristic of our fathers; (of New England ;) to maintain them; but we find, also, in some instances, they transmitted it to their posterity, and startling as the same vein of ultraism, and the same insolent prethe proposition may seem, it has ever been the basis of tension to impose their own dogmas, and their own the New England character." We see, however, (by the notions, upon others. Take for sample that real fa second article,) that a writer in the "Monthly Maga-naticism, that fever, or rather frenzy of abolitionism zine," has fallen foul of this sentiment of Mr. Sprague, and insists upon it that "fanaticism" would be "a more appropriate term for a part of that feeling which impelled the Puritans to seek a home in the wilderness of the New World." He adds, too, that "the bigotted despotism with which they domineered over all who departed from their stern creed, and who would not consent to stand, day and night, in the strait jacket, in which they enveloped alike the feeble and the strong, should not be dignified with the name of enthusiasm." This, of course, rouses our champion, and he replies indignantly, echoing the writer's words:

par.

which is, or was but lately, so rife among them, and which has threatened to disturb the peace of our states, and perhaps to destroy our Union itself. Fortunately, however, for themselves and for mankind, there is usually, and almost always, such a decided preponderance of good sense, and good feeling among them as hardly ever fails to preserve the body politic, and bring back its disorded members, in good time, to a sound and sober state. It is well, indeed, we must say, that they can thus moderate and regulate themselves, as all the world without might not be able to keep them in order.

"Fanaticism is the more appropriate term for a part of that We should like to add our writer's remarks upon the derness of the New World. That is partly as people think. which we think, from our own observation, are sub feeling, which impelled the Puritans to seek a home in the wil-subject of "bigotry" (as it is called) in New England, The assertion is one of that indefiniteness, which renders it ticularly difficult to confute; and at all events, it does not admit stantially just; and upon some other topics; but we find of being met, without entering into a course of discussion which that we have no more space to spare; and we must close does not comport with the habits of this journal. For ourselves, our slight and passing notice of these articles, by com let us but know that we were animated by the feeling which immending them to the particular perusal and candid conpelled those glorious men to execute that glorious work, and any body should be welcome to call it by any name, which might suit his notions of justice and euphony."

sideration of all who can obtain them, and which, we can assure them, they well deserve, and will amply repay.