is as true of mental as of corporeal qualities. What then could fasten on the descendants of such a race the curse of degeneracy? The mode in which they were reared, under a necessity to contend with difficulties, and be forever on the alert, was calculated for the full development of all their faculties, and to improve rather than deteriorate them; and in many well known instances it did improve them. Let the history of the time be consulted, and it will testify conclusively to all these truths. During the greatest part of the first century after the commencement of the colonies, the emigrants from the mother country belonged to the most enterprising, bold, and efficient class of her population. None others were calculated for the experiment of emigration, and residence in the New World, or had the hardihood to attempt it. But that such ancestors, in a healthy region, where the means of sustenance were ample, where strict temperance was the settled usage, and full exercise of body and mind was common to all, should give birth to a race of degenerates, could never happen, except through a change in the laws of nature. We assert that a phenomenon of this kind has never occurred; and we challenge our slanderers to show the contrary. Nothing but ignorance of nature, or inattention to her economy, could have led them to the adoption of a belief so preposterous. Their charge of degeneracy against us, therefore, is as little creditable to their philosophy as their civility.

But let us descend from principle to fact; from abstract reasoning to observation and history, and there we shall find our theory confirmed. The highest encomium that can be passed on the intellect of a people is to say of it, that it always directs its possessors to the fittest objects of pursuit, and suggests the means best calculated for their attainment. And this, to say the least, is as true of American intellect, as it is of the English. Were we to pronounce it much more so, the frightful spectacle of want and misery, and we may add of crime, which Great-Britain now presents, contrasted with our unexampled prosperity, and comparative virtue, would confirm our assertion. For the distresses of nations as well as of individuals arise from the want or misapplication of mind. National wisdom has never yet led to national calamity; nor can such an event occur, while cause and effect retain their relation. As soon shall the stream run upward, or the lighter medium descend through the heavier. But Britain, we say is miserable, and the United States abundantly happy. This is a comment alike significant and instructive on her intellect and mode of employing it, as well as on ours. While we are enjoying the choicest fruits of talent and wisdom, and she draining the bitter cup of error and folly, it would be becoming in her, at least, should she even refuse to applaud us, to cease from defaming us.

Shall we be told, that the monarchical government and semi-feudal institutions of Great-Britain act as fetters on her intellect, and prevent her from employing it according to the dictates of wisdom and judgement? and that her calamities arise from that source, and not from any intellectual deficiency? We reply, that, until 1775, Americans were subject to the same government, which proclaimed its right and manifested a disposition to "bind them in all cases whatsoever," by laws and resolutions which they had no agency in framing. But their clear perception of right and fitness told them that it was an evil not

to be borne by men professing to be free; their manly spirit and love of justice prompted them to throw it off, and their genius and valor crowned their glorious effort with success. If Britons are equally gifted in all that belongs to enlightened freemen, why do they groan on, and submit to their chains? Why do they not, like Americans, break them asunder, and establish a wiser system of government, act in all things agreeably to reason, and enjoy their reward? Wherefore, we say, do they thus submit to calamities, which wisdom, enterprise, and valor might so easily remedy? Under such circumstances why do they content themselves with empty complaints? The answer is plain. They want the high qualities of the sages and heroes who achieved our revolution. And it is the decree of nature that it should be so. Perfect freedom of action strengthens and improves every faculty of man, mental as well as corporeal. But freedom of every kind is in greater perfection in the United States, than in Great-Britain, or any other country. Its effects are seen, therefore, in the improvement of the whole man. Hence, instead of being deteriorated, the intellect of America is strengthened and ameliorated. We hazard nothing in asserting, that the Americans surpass the British in all things on which they have bestowed an equal share of attention and labor. If their literature is inferior, it is because it has been much less cultivated as a pursuit. Respecting other matters in which they are inferior the same is true. For we repeat, and challenge refutation, that, all other things being equal, the freer the people, the higher and more efficient is their intellectual character. The late glorious struggle in Paris proves this. Frenchmen enjoyed more freedom in 1830, than they did in 1790. Hence their efforts were of a higher and nobler order.

It is uttering but a truism to observe, that, at different periods of their existence and progress, from a weak and humble to a powerful and exalted standing, nations must engage in different pursuits; and according as their pursuits and the means of accomplishing them are well selected and applied, will their success be certain and their condition prosperous. And, as already intimated, the fortunate issue of their schemes for the promotion of public good and individual happiness, amounts to the highest and fairest commendation that the wisdom and talent which directed them can receive. Let Americans be judged of by this rule, and never has the intellect of any people appeared to such advantage. For never has any other advanced with half as much rapidity and steadiness, or in a career of such brilliancy, to greatness and glory.

We, like other nations, have had our heroic age, during which the 'business of man was to encounter peril and hardship, and to perform daring and wondrous deeds; and our ancestors, who were real men, composed of bone, and brain, and muscle, and nerves that could feel every thing but fear, acquitted themselves in it with a boldness and chivalry never surpassed by knights of fiction. But the difference between our heroic age and that of most other nations was infinite. Theirs was fabulous, ours real. While their poetic knights and champions met and overthrew imaginary monsters and giants of fable, our positive ones fought and vanquished wild beasts and savages no less formidable, made up of true flesh and blood. And while the clang of their battles existed only in the songs of bards and the lays of min

strels, ours had a dismal reality in the stunning crack of the rifle, the twang of the bow, the whizzing of the hatchet as it hurtled through the air, the deafening war-whoop, and the groans of the dying. The fabled combat of St. George and the dragon, with all the glare of poetry around it, may be pronounced inferior, in daring and chivalry, to many conflicts that have actually occurred in the American forest. The real exploits, moreover, of Boone are almost comparable to the fictitious ones of Hercules. In fine, were all the darings, deeds, and sufferings of our ancestors and frontier men recorded in simple narrative, they would constitute a work surpassing in wonders any romance that fancy has formed. But these were the product of American mind, adapted to the period in which they occurred. The same minds which directed them were competent, under a change of circumstances, to provide for any other emergency.

When we were colonists, we acted, as related both to ourselves and the mother country, in a manner strictly becoming our condition; but we looked ahead and prepared for independence. While achieving that blessing, the fitness of our measures is proved by the issue, and excited at the time, the admiration of the world. In intelligence and talent, eloquence and firmness, to which may be added public virtue and personal rectitude, no body of men ever surpassed the American Congress of 1776. We know of none that ever equalled it. In her whole parliamentary career, extending through several centuries of her brightest era, Great-Britain presents nothing comparable to it. She has had, at different times, her great and good men; but such a constellation as ours, just referred to, she never had. For proof of their superiority, we refer to their acts.

Of the governments subsequently established, to secure what had been gained in the revolutionary struggle, we might speak in terms of equal commendation. They were monuments of wisdom to instruct the world, not excepting Great-Britain herself, in what it did not know before. The truth of this also is proved by the result. The world is both instructed and improved by them. Had not our governments been surpassingly wise and well administered, our prosperity under them could not have been so great. In the management of public affairs, then, the American mind has always shown itself equal to the emergency. In no instance, however intricate and arduous, has it been found wanting. It comprehended every thing, dared every thing, and vanquished every difficulty. Our calumniators themselves, when pressed on the subject, will not deny this, because history has recorded it, and many well known facts sustain it. They will not even deny that as often as our diplomatists have come into conflict with those of GreatBritain, on national affairs, they have, in almost every instance, proved themselves the ablest and most successful negotiators. Some of the British presses have even murmured at this, and charged their own ministers with incompetency; yet, in perhaps their next paper, they have charged the Americans with a similar defect. Such is the consistency of men, when engaged in defending what their own observation proclaims erroneous!

Nor, as relates to trade, commerce, and the general business of life, can less be said of us. In these particulars no people have ever surpassed the Americans in intelligence, enterprise and skill. To this

the whole aspect of our country, our numerous seaports, and almost every noted mart on earth bear witness. Indeed our adroitness in these respects is proverbial. Nor, in several branches of elegant and costly manufactures, are we any where surpassed; and if we have not yet succeeded to the same extent in others, it is because we have not labored in them; the reason of which again is, that they do not suit our present condition, and would not furnish a profitable employment. Change our condition, and render them suitable and profitable, and we shall soon become masters in them. Conclusive evidence of the clearness and sagacity of the American intellect is, that it does not waste time in unfitting pursuits. It has a keen perception of aptitude, and attempts nothing in violation of it. To act otherwise would be a mark of weakness or want of reflection. Had British tourists the good sense to know this, they would not look, in the wilds of the interior of America, for the customs, manners, elegancies, and luxuries, that are found now in the vicinity of Paris and London, but which were not even there a century ago. Nor, had they good breeding, would they rail at the country in consequence of their disappointment when searching for them. Things are as well suited to their condition in the United States as they are in England or any other part of Europe: and as condition shall change, all related circumstances will change with it. The good sense of the people is the guaranty of this. A more strictly practical people never existed.

The American intellect, then, possessing great compass, strength, and flexibility, united to a clear perception of fitness, is equal to any exigency in human affairs, and can adapt its pursuits to every change that may occur, and its measures to every new demand that may be made on it. This is attested by the great improvements it has made in every branch of knowledge, that is called for in the country, and by which an honorable independence can be gained. Our position to this effect might be confirmed by a reference to the elevated condition of the liberal professions among us, and the multitude of inventions in the mechanical arts. Knowledge on these subjects, being needed in the present state of society, can be rendered profitable to its possessors, by an immediate application of it to practical purposes. It is therefore eagerly sought after, and rapidly attained. And the same will be true

of every other branch of knowledge, as soon as it shall be called for, under the certainty of a suitable reward. No matter whether it belongs to science, arts, or letters; let a market for it be opened, and American genius will soon supply it.

The

As already intimated, but little has been hitherto done by the public to encourage American literature. It has been even discountenanced, by an unreasonable preference of that from abroad. We call the preference unreasonable, because the foreign articles preferred have been often inferior to the domestic ones that were undervalued. consequence has been what every one who reflected on the subject anticipated. Polite literature has been comparatively but little cultivated among us, except as a matter of individual taste and amusement. We have had but few writers by profession, because neither honor nor riches awaited the pursuit. Our mechanics became wealthy by laboring in their vocations, while our scholars might have starved in the midst of the most exquisite productions of their pens. The reason is obvious.

There was a great demand for the implements of agriculture and some of the arts, but a very limited one for poetry, or any other kind of fine writing. The former was adapted to the state of society, while the latter was out of time. Necessaries and comforts, not luxuries or mere delicacies, were first to be provided. But polite literature is a luxury and will not therefore be encouraged, because it cannot be indulged in, except as a concomitant of wealth and leisure. During this condi tion of things, but few literary productions appeared; and even those that did appear were not of the highest order, or in the most finished style, because they had not been sufficiently elaborated; and to become a good writer is the work of years, under close industry, and the strictest attention to style and manner. Such was the disheartening state of things. Yet it has already appeared, that, notwithstanding its power to blight and wither, it did not render American genius unproductive. Beneath gloom and winter, as heretofore stated, the blossoms opened, and the fruit became mature and excellent, far beyond what there was ground to expect. Such was the vigor of the soil from which they sprung.

But of late, the sentiments of society have changed, public taste and judgement are improved, and a new era is evidently opening on American literature. Foreign productions are not, as formerly, almost indiscriminately approved, nor those of our own writers rejected, merely because they are not the growth of a distant hemisphere. Readers examine and reflect before they feel themselves authorized to decide. Their decision, therefore, is founded on principle, and is usually correct. As the consequence of this change in public feeling, American works are sought for and purchased, to a much greater extent than in former years. Let this state of things continue; or rather let it improve in the requisite degree; let fine specimens of American composition be rewarded with honor and profit, and they will soon be abundantly produced. Let prompt and liberal purchasers be found, and the market, as in other cases, will be well supplied. The Souvenirs, Tokens, and novels of the day, with many other productions of taste give proof of this. We do not say that Byrons, and Sir Walters, and Moores will immediately spring up among us. Authors of that class appear but seldom. But we do say that we shall soon have writers equal to any Europe contains, except, perhaps, such prodigies as we have named; and in time we shall equal them. The same genius that gave renown to our fathers, through all the eventful periods of our history, is still the cherished inheritance of their descendants. And it is susceptible of any direction, and capable of any exertion, that may be called for by the condition and wants of the community. It is fully competent to gratify the taste, and answer to the varying desires of the times. Let it be turned to letters, with the enthusiasm and energy that have always marked it, and it will kindle up, in another and more enduring form, the glories it shed around it on the battle-field and on canvass, as well as in the forum, the cabinet, and the halls of legislation. The literature of America will then vie with her other productions; and Englishmen, abstaining from further calumnies, will blush for those they have already so culpably invented and propagated.