that a spark or a breath would set them in a flame. When, however, they come to the United States, and see them all quietly engaged in their domestic occupations, and most especially when they witness the cool, dignified composure with which the citizen exercises his sovereignty, they are astonished at the sublime spectacle. If there are occasional exceptions, it is only in our great cities among the lowest rabble, which is sometimes stimulated by the lowest class of pettifogging politicians to a few broken heads and bloody noses. There is but one sectional question that can endanger the Union, and that is of too vital consequence to be treated incidentally. The storm has subsided at present, and we may humbly hope will never be followed by another.

The United States contain, in proportion to their numbers, a greater mass of physical strength and activity than is to be found in any other people; and this arises partly from the rapidity with which they increase, in consequence of which there is always a greater proportion of young men, partly from circumstances we shall presently adduce. In the Western, and indeed throughout all the New States, the men are for the most part in the vigor of life; and there is nowhere to be found that class so numerous in England, whose physical and intellectual qualities have become debilitated by a long series of hereditary monotonous labor in one spot, and at one employment, poorly compensated by a scanty supply of that kind of food which fills the belly without strengthening the members. Throughout by far the greater proportion of the United States, the inhabitants have been accustomed to modes of life, which, while they give full exercise to the body, at the same time call into action the qualities indispensable to the pioneers of a New World. Their course from the beginning required the exercise of courage, hardihood, enterprise, and self-reliance, together with that discernment of spirit and that versatility of talent which accommodates itself to every exigency, and enables men to become their own legislators as well as their own defenders. If they find insuperable difficulties in the way of fortune and distinction in the old settlements, they seek a clearer field and wider space in the new, where they grow up with the community and become great by the expansion of everything around them.

They are the most active people in the world, and always on the wing. They give the lie to the old proverb, and gather moss by rolling. English writers, who only contemplate man in the cabbage state, call this a "restless activity," and adduce it as one of the defects of the national character. But to our minds it is the proper characteristic of a people like those of the United States, who have an unoccupied world before them. Without this propensity they would never have risen to the height of prosperity and power they now occupy. Like those of Europe, they would have remained crowded together in corners, and stood rooted in one spot from generation to generation, instead of obeying the great command to go forth, increase and multiply, and make the earth fruitful.

With the exception of emigrants from abroad, the people of the United States have grown up in a new world, presenting an almost unbounded field for the exertion of all their energies, physical, moral, and intellectual. From their first step on this continent, they have encountered in their progress a succession of labors, dangers, hardships, and privations, such as no other people perhaps ever voluntarily endured with equal fortitude and per

severance for a succession of ages. They could not move in any direction without encountering the obstacles of nature and the opposition of her sons; they had to subdue the earth as well as the barbarians by whom it was roamed-not occupied. They had to cut down the gigantic trees of the primeval forests; to encounter the extremes of danger and the pangs of hunger; to work, to sleep, and to worship God with the rifle in their hands or by their sides; and their repose was a perpetual vigil of watchfulness. For a long while they were left to their own energies and resources for protection, and this condition called forth all their physical, moral, and intellectual vigor. This has been their uniform course for almost three hundred years; and this severe discipline has produced a race of men combining in a more just and equal proportion, the knowledge, intelligence, and habits of civilized life, with, the vigor, hardihood, and enterprise of a state of barbarism, than any other that ever existed. Occupying a position between the corrupt effeminacy of refinement, and the ruggedness which discards it entirely, they are precisely in that state most favorable to the moral, physical, and intellectual development of man.

Equally uncorrupted by luxurious indulgence, and undebased by abject poverty; equally remote from the two extremes of effeminacy and barbarism; equally free from the shackles of despotism and the licentiousness of anarchy; equally master of his mind and his body; accustomed from his early youth to a sphere of action and contemplation almost without limit or circumscription, the faculties of a citizen of the United States operate on a scale of which the common people of Europe, crimped and cribbed as they are in one unvaried circle of monotonous, unrewarded labor, can form no conception whatTo him the present is almost nothing, the future all. He enjoys the one only as a stepping-stone to the other. He looks well to the path immediately before him; but the end of his journey is far distant, and the difficulty in its attainment is only a spur to his exertions. In short, he believes in destiny, and this belief may be said to constitute destiny, for it is that faith which is always followed by works, and, like prophecy, it is very apt to bring about its own fulfilment.

ever.

To a large portion of the people of the United States, sufficiently numerous to give character to the whole, the vicissitudes of cold, hunger and thirst, the dangers of flood and fields, or the inflictions of the tomahawk and scalping knife, are no obstacles to the pursuit of fame and fortune, and the boundless prairie or interminable forest is only a park for chasing the buffalo or deer. Distance is no impediment, and danger only offers a stirring excitement. The perils, hardships, and privations of the wilderness or desert are encountered, and remembered not only by men, but women and children, as ordinary occurrences, temporary inconveniences in the way to future peace and prosperity. In a word, the Americans are a young nation, and such only achieve miracles; they are a free nation, and liberty creates her own defenders.

European writers, most especially those of England, zealous to underrate the influences of liberty and equality on the progress. of mankind, and the prosperity of nations, have ascribed the phenomenon now presented by the United States, not so much to the energy, activity, intelligence, and enterprise of the people, as to their social position, and other great natural advantages, having no connection with or dependence on their form of govern

ment or political institutions. Such are the plenty and cheapness of land, the vast space for expansion, and other circumstances. That these have had their influence no reflecting American will deny ; but granting them all that can be rationally ascribed to them, still they do not solve the problem. The people of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, descended from the same ancestors, and having the same space for expansion in comparison with their numbers, present a spectacle far different from the United States. Their progress is that of the snail compared with the whirlwind. The steed has the bit in his mouth and the rider on his back. There must be something in addition to these causes, that has given force and efficacy to the actual advantages enjoyed by the people of the United States; and the secret can only be found in the vigor, spirit, activity, and intelligence of men freed from the domination of strangers to become their own masters and lawgivers. This, combined with the characteristics we have previously noticed, is the key to that irresistible progress which has alarmed the statesmen of Europe, astonished the world, and paved the way to that rapid, almost incomprehensible ascent towards the summit of national dignity and power, which would never have been attained but for the possession of freedom and independence.

That our dearly beloved Jonathan has his faults, cannot be denied; and though we might safely leave these to be pointed out by the London Times, and other gentle monitors abroad, we will take this occasion to remind him that he is not altogether a piece of perfection. There is a great difference in the carping reprehensions of a peevish dotard, and a candid, honest friend, who points out a fault not to triumph over human weakness, but to correct its infirmities. As such we hope we shall be considered, while tracing the shadows which somewhat dim the lustre of the picture just exhibited.

The first weakness we shall notice in Brother Jonathan is his inveterate propensity to imitation. If, as Goldsmith asserts, the most imitative animal in nature is a dunce, he certainly stands high in that category, for he copies Europe, and especially England, in everything, especially in its follies, extravagance, and effeminacy. Though free in action, in opinion he is a slave; and though politically independent, he is morally and intellectually still in a state of colonial dependence. Though perpetually boasting of his freedom, he is at the same time adopting the practice and principles of despotism, and applying its maxims to the administration of his goverment. He sings hosannas to liberty and equality, yet is every day undermining one, and infringing on the rights of the other, by creating monopolies, in the disguise of chartered companies, embodying a vast concentration of wealth, and possessing privileges and immunities in which not one in a thousand of the people can ever partake, and which it is impossible for them to exercise. Jonathan has been so accustomed to think there can be no despotism except under a king, that he has lost sight of the memorable truth, that of all the varieties of government ever instituted, that which makes the name and forms of freedom a cloak for the abuses of power, is the most dangerous to the liberties of mankind. If Jonathan would only think for himself, and resort to his own common sense and experience, instead of making the old superannuated world his looking-glass, we think he would be much more respectable, prosperous and happy. But though such a hale, hearty fellow, he is still tied to the apron-string of his mother, who makes him believe anything she pleases, and while doing him all the sly ill

offices in her power, has almost succeeded in persuading him she is the best friend he has in the world. The old lady overwhelms him with all sorts of good books, which, as he gets for almost nothing, he reads with the greater pleasure, and his belief in the Bible is not more implicit than his confidence in the Edinburgh and Quarterly, the London Times, and Blackwood's Magazine. That old Scotch Tory is his oracle. Were it not for our newspapers, and public speakers, Jonathan would never read anything but what is eminently calculated to make him anything but a republican.

Another foible, or fault, of Jonathan, is his propensity to be led away by fanatical excitements. It is true he gets over them pretty soon, but not always before they have done all the mischief possible. While boasting of being of all men in the world the most free from superstition and fanaticism, he is always in a state of spontaneous combustion about some transcendentalism or other, which he pursues with such ardor, that he finally overtakes and treads it under foot. The disease is not exactly chronic with him, but one paroxysm succeeds another so rapidly, that he is never quite well, except at brief intervals. When under the influence of one of these paroxysms, he may be said to require a strait waistcoat, for he is almost as bad as a mad bull in a crockery store, and butts at both law and gospel. If the law stands in the way of jumping over his high ropes, he don't mind it in the least, any more than a constitutional scruple. But we will do him the justice to say that he always comes to himself when it is too late to mend matters. His "sober second thought" is admirable, but like a calm after a storm, which, though very refreshing, cannot lift up the prostrate harvest, or restore the shipwrecked vessels. We would respectfully and affectionately remind him of the old proverb, "Prevention is better that cure," and that there are some evils which cannot be cured, some things which, when done, cannot be undone. It is much better never to run mad, even though we may come to our senses at last.

But the greatest of Brother Jonathan's faults, in our humble opinion, is his horrible craving for money. Not that he is a miser, for he spends as fast as he gets it, and often a great deal faster; but he certainly loves money dearly, and we grieve to say too often, like the sportsman, uses traps and snares to capture his game. We had rather cut off our right thumb than call him a rogue, but he certainly would be none the worse for a little more honesty. The evil spirit of trade possesses him, and he is incessantly digging at the root of all evil, not only in California, but everywhere else. Mercury and Plutuswe mean the Paper Plutus-are his gods, and if on any occasion he gives a variety to his devotion, you will always find him grovelling at the foot of the golden calf. He seems to have no other object in life, no other conception of any enjoyment, but that of making and spending money. He has no other standard of human character, and reverences a worthless millionaire far above a poor man who is only possessed of a thousand good qualities. If you inquire as to the character of a man, he will tell you he is "good," though he may be an exemplary rogue, because he stands high in the money market; or if on the contrary he is a little consumptive in his purse, he is a "poor d-1," beyond all question. It never occurs to him that any man may become rich by persevering in a long life of sordid selfishness; starving his natural appetites to starve again on his acquisitions; shutting his heart to all social obligations and human sympathies, and taking advantage of the necessities, credulity,

and inexperience of his fellow-creatures. Jonathan should recollect that the possession of wealth is not the proper standard of human character, and that a contemptible rich man is ten times more contemptible than a contemptible poor one, because he is placed above the temptation of those tricks and devices which so often prove too strong for poverty.

This exclusive devotion to money won't do for a free people. You cannot worship God and mammon, nor kneel at the shrine of liberty while grovelling at the hoof of the golden calf. He who loves money better than anything else, will sell his conscience and his principles for money, and cannot long retain his freedom, because he is unworthy to be free. We see this exemplified almost continually in whole States and communities sacrificing their political principles to pecuniary considerations, and bartering their rights for grants of lands, for railroads, and other so-called improvements, from which they anticipate additional food to their cupidity. Does Jonathan dream that liberty can take care of herself while he is speculating in railroad stocks, or digging in California, from morning till night? He must think of something else besides gold-dust and locomotives, and have some other standard of human character, as well as human happiness, or he will go the way of all flesh, and some day or other rattle his golden chains among his fellow-slaves. But we must not be too hard upon Brother Jonathan, who is continually led astray by the example of his old mother, who despises an empty purse and worships millionaires. He is a mighty clever fellow, notwithstanding all his faults, and we earnestly hope will make use of his money for the benefit of his fellow-creatures, not forgetting himself. We should not at all be surprised if he were one day to become wiser and better than the mother that bore him.

MEXICO AND THE MONROE DOCTRINE.

GEOGRAPHICAL position, political sympathy, and commercial interest, all combine to render the progress of the Mexican Republic a subject of deep interest with the people of the United States, and to awaken the most anxious solicitude of our statesmen, in regard to every question which might affect, in any degree, the future destiny of the beautiful and chosen land of Cortez.

We are accustomed to speak of Mexico as a Republic; but if we regard, strictly, the principles of civil liberty and organic authority, upon which a constitutional representative Republic should be founded, (and upon some of which this soi disant Republic has professed to stand,) we should find that there has scarcely been a period when the government of Mexico was purely republican. A cursory glance at the history of this unhappy country, since her resistance to Spain, will most fully establish the truth of this position. Admitting the Constitution of 1824 was enacted formally, and by