the country at large the measure gave little satisfaction, and those for whose benefit it was professedly enacted, predicting its short continuance, slowly and cautiously adapted their business with a view to avail themselves of its provisions.

Sec. 14. During the year 1828, the approaching presidential election was the all engrossing topic of political discussion. The two candidates were Mr. Adams and General Jackson. Their claims to the presidency were urged by their respective parties by a zeal which led to the most unwarrantable scrutiny of private life, and an unjustifiable attack upon private character. The result of the contest was a large majority in the electoral colleges for General Jackson; 178 being for him, and only 83 for Mr. Adams.

The administration of Mr. Adams, from its very commencement, met with a powerful opposition. The circumstance of his not having been elected by the people, united to the small majority by which he was elected to his office in congress, was sufficient to call forth loud complaints, on the part of his opponents, and to justify, in their view, a more than usual watchfulness over his administration. Great pains were early taken to render him and his measures unpopular. The charge of a corrupt bargain between the president and secretary of state continued to be pertinaciously adhered to, and to be republished from mouth to mouth. The Panama mission was represented as a measure weak and injudicious, and the failure to obtain a participation in the British West India trade was averred to be in consequence of culpable mismanagement. Besides, it was charged upon his administration that it was wasteful and extravagant.

Whatever might be the injustice of these accusations, and of a host of others, they were published abroad with the manifest design of preventing Mr. Adams' re-election. With what effect they were urged, the election of 1829 revealed. On canvassing the votes of the electoral colleges. it was apparent that the friends of General Jackson had obtained as triumphant a victory, as those of the existing administration had experienced a mortifying defeat.

It has been well observed, and with the remarks of the writer we quote, we conclude, "That the events attending the political change of 1829, evince that when a prize of such magnitude as the presidency of the United States is set up, free to be contended for by all their citizens, the struggle will be arduous. All the human passions will be called into operation; the character of the means will not be regarded, provided they conduce to the end. In other nations, struggles for the supreme power have ever been attended with bloodshed. In this, the same passions operating, the virtue and intelligence of the people, with the most alarming examples in their own hemisphere before them, have hitherto stopped short of the last resort; whether, with the increasing magnitude of the object, this will continue to be the case, is as yet problematical, and dependant upon the good sense, virtue, and moderation, of the American people."

NOTES.

Sec. 15. MANNERS. Two centuries have elapsed since the first settlements were commenced in the United States by Europeans, yet the people have not acquired that uniform character, which belongs to ancient nations, upon whom time and the stability of institutions have imprinted a particular and individual character. Although partial changes have occurred, which have been noticed in the progress of this work, yet, so far down as the present time, the essential variations which have taken place are few. The general physiognomy is nearly as varied as the origin of the population is different.

A marked distinction undoubtedly exists between the inhabitants of the commercial and maritime towns and the villages of the country. The former, in a more considerable degree, as to luxury and vice, resemble the great towns of Europe. Those of the country, who lead an agricultu ral life, preserve much of the simplicity, with something of the roughness, of former days; but they enjoy all that happiness which proceeds from the exercise of the social virtues in their primitive purity. Their affections are constant; felicity crowns the conjugal union; parental authori

ty is sacred; infidelity on the part of the wife is almost unknown; crime is rare, mendicity and theft uncommon.

The people generally are enterprising, industrious, persevering, and submissive to government. They are also intelligent, brave, active, and benevolent, and possess a strength and agility of body which are seldom united in so great a degree. With somewhat of the appearance of apathy, and under a sober exterior, strong feelings, and a capacity for the most lively sallies, are concealed. As the benefits of education are extensively diffused, the ingenuity and intelligence of the people have been displayed to advantage, if not in the higher walks of literature, yet in the useful branches of knowledge, and in the arts which multiply the comforts of life.

From the perfect freedom and equality which are possessed, and the interest taken in political discussions, a tendency to dissoluteness in our manners is undoubtedly to be perceived; but the barrier created by education will, it is hoped, keep in check the unwelcome tide. In the amusements of the people, there are evidently some changes for the better, indicating more correct ideas of humanity and taste. Upon the whole, the manners of the people of the United States, especially among the more cultivated classes, are, probably, a medium between an honest bluntness on the one hand, and a sickly delicacy on the other, or between a low and the highest degree of refinement. The latter, indeed, is not to be expected in a country where there is no court, and no hereditary nobility, whose leisure and inclination might lead them to substitute the affected and burdensome politeness of courtries for the present manly ease of freemen.

Sec. 16. RELIGION. The principal religious denominations, at present, in the United States, are Presbyterians, and Congregationalists, Baptists, Friends, Episcopalians, and Methodists. The two first of these, unitedly, have more than twenty-five hundred congregations; the number of Baptist congregations exceeds two thousand. the Friends have five hundred, and the Episcopalians about three hundred. The Methodists also are numerous.

For the effectual employment of those who wish to be en

gaged in the Christian ministry and in missions, peculiar facilities have been devised; and the plans of benevolence, mentioned under the last period, have been continued and greatly augmented. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the American Bible Society, the American Education Society, together with a society for the colonization of free blacks in Africa, have risen in respectability and resources. Missionaries in considerable numbers are sent, not only into vacant and destitute parts of our own country, to the south and west, and among the Indians; but also to Southern Asia, to Palestine, and to the Is lands of the Pacific Ocean.

It is not to be disguised that much irreligion and vice, and some opposition to the above named objects, prevail, and that a spirit of infidelity exists, though in a form more concealed than formerly, and under more decent names. Nor does it become us to deny, that in a time of so much religious action and religious news, by which attention is occupied, there is danger of a superficial acquaintance with the doctrines of the Bible, among the mass of professors. Yet, whatever may be the danger from this source, we are persuaded that such exertions are altogether congenial with the precepts of the gospel, and will in the end produce a vastly counterbalancing good. The exigencies of the church, and of the times, require precisely such a spirit of benevolent enterprise, to be increased, we trust, with the growth of the nation.

The attention, which is now paid to biblical learning, and to a more systematic instruction in theology, by those who are to become Christian teachers, forms an era in the history of religion, in this country. This will be a means, in due time, of counteracting that tendency to religious dissipation, and to a superficial doctrinal knowledge, among professing Christians, which have been mentioned. Indeed, the good consequences of such preparatory studies begin to be felt in other respects, at least; and the call for a learned and efficient, as well as a pious ministry is doubly increasing. Morality, which is a component part of religion, has taken deep root, and the increased means of Christian instruction just noticed, form a striking contrast to the ef fects, which proceed from a dearth of the spirit and of the word of God, in less favored parts of the country. It is worthy of notice, also, that some vigorous attempts have been made, by means of the association of individuls, in various places, to prevent the progress of vice, and, of course,

to promote the interests of Christian virtue. Intemperance, which is the most alarming symptom of the times, has, by this means, received a partial, though, it must be confessed, inadequate restraint.

The com

Sec. 17. TRADE AND COMMERCE. merce of the United States consists, principally, in the exchange of agricultural produce for the manufactures of other parts of the world, and the productions of the tropical climates. The principal articles of domestic produce, exported, are cotton, wheat flour, biscuit, tobacco, lumber, rice, pot and pearl ashes, Indian corn and meal, dried and pickled fish, beef, rye, pork, &c.

Of these, cotton* is the most considerable article, and has increased, regularly, from one hundred thousand pounds, the amount exported in 1790, to more than 264 millions of pounds, in 1829, the value of which was 26 millions of dollars. Next to cotton, wheat flour, and biscuit, are exported in the greatest quantities.-Tobacco and rice are on the decline, the attention of planters being directed to the more profitable cultivation of cotton.

Of these exports, New-England and New-York are the great carriers. To them belong nearly two thirds of all the shipping of the United States. The states south of the Potomac own only one eight part. Our staple articles are principally the growth of the southern states, and are carried coast wise, from the southern to the middle states, whence they are sent to foreign countries, almost entirely, in ships owned by northern merchants, and navigated by northern seamen. In 1820, there were about seventy thousand persons, in the United States, engaged in commerce, of which thirteen thousand, or nearly one sixth, belonged

The greater attention to the cultivation of cotton is to be ascribed to the invention of a machine for cleaning upland cotton from its seeds. For this machine we are indebted to Mr. Whitney, of New-Haven, Connecticut. Before the invention of this machine, it was so difficult to cleanse cotton, that the cultivation of it was extremely limited. It is now cultivated, to great extent, in the states south of Virginia, and Kentucky. The wheat and flour exported are raised, principally, in the middle and western states; tobacco in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina; lum. ber is chiefly from the forests of Maine, New-Hampshire, and the low countries of the Carolinas and Georgia. Rice is mostly raised in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Louisiana, &c.