[1]
The United States have no metropolis, but they
already contain several very large cities. Philadelphia reckoned
161,000 inhabitants and New York 202,000 in the year 1830. The
lower orders which inhabit these cities constitute a rabble even
more formidable than the populace of European towns. They consist
of freed blacks in the first place, who are condemned by the laws
and by public opinion to a hereditary state of misery and
degradation. They also contain a multitude of Europeans who have
been driven to the shores of the New World by their misfortunes
or their misconduct; and these men inoculate the United States
with all our vices, without bringing with them any of those
interests which counteract their baneful influence. As
inhabitants of a country where they have no civil rights, they
are ready to turn all the passions which agitate the community to
their own advantage; thus, within the last few months serious
riots have broken out in Philadelphia and in New York.
Disturbances of this kind are unknown in the rest of the country,
which is nowise alarmed by them, because the population of the
cities has hitherto exercised neither power nor influence over
the rural districts. Nevertheless, I look upon the size of
certain American cities, and especially on the nature of their
population, as a real danger which threatens the future security
of the democratic republics of the New World; and I venture to
predict that they will perish from this circumstance unless the
government succeeds in creating an armed force, which, whilst it
remains under the control of the majority of the nation, will be
independent of the town population, and able to repress its
excesses.
[The population of the city of New York had risen, in 1870,
to 942,292, and that of Philadelphia to 674,022. Brooklyn, which
may be said to form part of New York city, has a population of
396,099, in addition to that of New York. The frequent
disturbances in the great cities of America, and the excessive
corruption of their local governments -over which there is no
effectual control -are amongst the greatest evils and dangers of
the country.]
[2]
[The number of foreign immigrants into the United
States in the last fifty years (from 1820 to 1871) is stated to
be 7,556,007. Of these, 4,104,553 spoke English -that is, they
came from Great Britain, Ireland, or the British colonies;
2,643,069 came from Germany or northern Europe; and about half a
million from the south of Europe.]
[3]
In New England the estates are exceedingly small,
but they are rarely subjected to further division.
[4]
[It is difficult to ascertain with accuracy the
amount of the Roman Catholic population of the United States, but
in 1868 an able writer in the "Edinburgh Review" (vol. cxxvii. p.
521) affirmed that the whole Catholic population of the United
States was then about 4,000,000, divided into 43 dioceses, with
3,795 churches, under the care of 45 bishops and 2,317 clergymen.
But this rapid increase is mainly supported by immigration from
the Catholic countries of Europe.]
[5]
The New York "Spectator" of August 23, 1831, relates
the fact in the following terms: -"The Court of Common Pleas of
Chester county (New York) a few days since rejected a witness who
declared his disbelief in the existence of God. The presiding
judge remarked that he had not before been aware that there was a
man living who did not believe in the existence of God; that this
belief constituted the sanction of all testimony in a court of
justice, and that he knew of no cause in a Christian country
where a witness had been permitted to testify without such
belief."
[6]
Unless this term be applied to the functions which
many of them fill in the schools. Almost all education is
entrusted to the clergy.
[7]
See the Constitution of New York, art. 7, Section
4: -
"And whereas the ministers of the gospel are, by their
profession, dedicated to the service of God and the care of souls, and
ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their functions:
therefore no minister of the gospel, or priest of any denomination
whatsoever, shall at any time hereafter, under any pretence or
description whatever, be eligible to, or capable of holding, any civil
or military office or place within this State."
See also the
constitutions of North Carolina, art. 31; Virginia; South Carolina, art.
I, Section 23; Kentucky, art. 2, Section 26; Tennessee, art. 8, Section
I; Louisiana, art. 2, Section 22.
[8]
[This cannot be said with truth of the country of
Kent, Story, and Wheaton.]
[9]
[In the Northern States the number of persons
destitute of instruction is inconsiderable, the largest number
being 241,152 in the State of New York (according to Spaulding's
"Handbook of American Statistics" for 1874); but in the South no
less than 1,516,339 whites and 2,671,396 colored persons are
returned as "illiterate."]
[10]
I travelled along a portion of the frontier of
the United States in a sort of cart which was termed the mail. We
passed, day and night, with great rapidity along the roads which were
scarcely marked out, through immense forests; when the gloom of the
woods became impenetrable the coachman lighted branches of fir, and we
journeyed along by the light they cast. From time to time we came to a
hut in the midst of the forest, which was a post-office. The mail
dropped an enormous bundle of letters at the door of this isolated
dwelling, and we pursued our way at full gallop, leaving the inhabitants
of the neighboring log houses to send for their share of the
treasure.
[When the author visited America the locomotive and the
railroad were scarcely invented, and not yet introduced in the United
States. It is superfluous to point out the immense effect of those
inventions in extending civilization and developing the resources of
that vast continent. In 1831 there were 51 miles of railway in the
United States; in 1872 there were 60,000 miles of railway.]
[11]
In 1832 each inhabitant of Michigan paid a sum
equivalent to 1 fr. 22 cent. (French money) to the post-office
revenue, and each inhabitant of the Floridas paid 1 fr. 5 cent.
(See "National Calendar," 1833, p. 244.) In the same year each
inhabitant of the Departement du Nord paid 1 fr. 4 cent. to the
revenue of the French post-office. (See the "Compte rendu de
l'administration des Finances," 1833, p. 623.) Now the State of
ichigan only contained at that time 7 inhabitants per square
league and Florida only 5: the public instruction and the
commercial activity of these districts is inferior to that of
most of the States in the Union, whilst the Departement du Nord,
which contains 3,400 inhabitants per square league, is one of the
most enlightened and manufacturing parts of France.
[12]
I remind the reader of the general signification
which I give to the word "manners," namely, the moral and
intellectual characteristics of social man taken collectively.
[13]
[A remark which, since the great Civil War of
1861-65, ceases to be applicable.]
[14]
[This prediction of the return of France to imperial
despotism, and of the true character of that despotic power, was
written in 1832, and realized to the letter in 1852.]
