also imposed taxes for the purpose of founding schools. The for- ANALYSIS. mer law retained its force, because it was supported by the spirit of party, but learning was neglected, because, (says the historian of the province,) she belonged to no party at all. Of New York, 1 State of now so distinguished for the number and excellence of its higher education in seminaries of learning, and the universal diffusion of the advantages of common school education, early writers say, th. t the great bulk of the people were strangers even to the first rudiments of science and cultivation, till the era of the American Revolution. New York. 2. Printing, and newspa pers, in the colonies. pers in Eng. land. 4 Restric tions upon of the press in the freedom the colonies. 8. The first printing* in the colonies was executed at Boston in 1639, and the first newspaper was published there in 1704. At this latter period Boston contained five printing offices and many booksellers' shops; while there was then but one bookseller's shop in New York, and not one in Maryland, Virginia, or the Carolinas. 3It 3. Newspa should be remarked, however, that so late as 1696 there were but eight newspapers published in England, although a greater number was published during the period of the Commonwealth. 9. Grahame says, "The press in America was nowhere entirely free from legal restraint till about the year 1755. In 1723 James Franklin was prohibited by the governor and council of Massachusetts from publishing the New England Courant without previously submitting its contents to the revision of the secretary of the province; and in 1754, one Fowle was imprisoned by the House of Assembly of the same province, on suspicion of having printed a pamphlet containing reflections on some members of the government. After the year 1730, no officer appears to have been appointed in Massachusetts to exercise a particular control over the press; but prior to that period, the imprimatur of a licenser was inscribed on many of the New England publications." In connection with this statement it should be remarked that, until near the close of the seventeenth century, liberty of the press was scarcely known in England. Hume says that "it was not till 1694 that the restraints were taken off, to the great displeasure of the king and his ministers, who, seeing no where, in any government, during present or past ages, any example of such unlimited freedom, doubted much of its salutary effects; and probably thought, that no books or writings would ever so much improve the general understanding of men, as to render it safe to intrust them with an indulgence so easily abused." 5. Restric freedom of the press in tions upon England. 6. Hume's remarks. colonies. 10. 7From the statements that have been made, of the scanty 7. Slow progress of sci. advantages of common school education in all the provinces, ex- ence and litcept in New England-the late establishment of the newspaper erature in the press and the almost utter destitution of higher seminaries of learning, we may form a very just estimate of the slow progress of science and literature in the American colonies. Still there were men of genius, and of science even, in America, prior to the Revolution;-men whose character and attainments reflected honor on the country to which they belonged, and who were ornaments of the age in which they lived. The first article published was the Freeman's Oath, the second an almanac, and the third an edition of the Psalms. It was half a century later before any printing was executed in any other part of British America. In 1683 the first printing press was established in Pennsylvania, in 1693 in New York, in 1709 in Connecticut, in 1728 in Maryland, in 1729 in Virginia, and in 1730 in South Carolina. 1 The Boston Weekly News-Letter. In 1719 the second newspaper was published in the same city, and in the same year the third was published in Philadelphia. In 1725 the first newspaper was published in New York, and in 1732 the first in Rhode Island. ANALYSIS. 1. Franklin, Bartram, Rittenhouse, 11. 'We look upon the scientific discoveries of Franklin,*-upon Godfrey's invention of the quadrant,f-upon the researches of Godfrey, Bartram, a Pennsylvanian Quaker and farmer, whom Linnæus called "the greatest natural botanist in the world,"-upon the Edwards, c. mathematical and astronomical inventions of Rittenhouses-and upon the metaphysical and theological writings of Edwards,|| with the greater pride, when we consider that these eminent men owed their attainments to no fostering care which Britain ever showed for the cultivation of science and literature in her colonies,—that these men were their own instructors, and that their celebrity is wholly of American origin. That the colonies did not progress farther and accomplish more in the paths of learning during the period of their pupilage, is not so much America's fault, as Britain's shame. 2. Abatement of the spirit and intoler. ance in New of bigotry England. 3. Pecuniary for past injustice. 12. 2As we have had occasion frequently to allude to the spirit of bigotry and intolerance which distinguished the early inhabitants of New England, we may here appropriately notice the change in this respect, which all classes of people had undergone long before the period of the Revolution. Although much puritanical strictness and formality still pervaded New England manners, yet religious zeal had become so tempered with charity, that explosions of frenzy and folly, like those exhibited by the early Quakers, and which still continued to occur among some enthusiasts so late as the beginning of the eighteenth century, were no longer treated as offences against religion, but as violations of public order and decency, and were punished accordingly; justice being tempered by prudence and mercy. 13. During the administration of Governor Belcher, the assembly compensation of Massachusetts passed laws making pecuniary compensation to the descendants of those Quakers who had suffered capital punishment in the years 1653 and 1659, and also to the descendants of those who had been the victims of the persecutions for witchcraft in 1693. In 1729 the legislature of Connecticut exempted Quakers and Baptists from ecclesiastical taxes; and two years later a similar law was enacted by the assembly of Massachusetts. 4 Exemp tions from ecclesiastical taxes 5 Supposed gravity and Coldness of land man- 14. The exceeding strictness of the puritanical laws of New England have led many to form an unworthy opinion of the gravity and coldness of New England manners. And yet we are told by numerous writers that the people were distinguished by innocent Benjamin Franklin, a well known American philosopher and statesman, born at Boston in Jan. 1706, discovered the identity of lightning and electricity, which led to the invention of the lightning rod. Thomas Godfrey, by trade a glazier in the city of Philadelphia, invented the reflecting quadrant, for taking the altitudes of the sun or stars,-an instrument of great use in astronomy and navigation. John Hadley, vice-president of the Royal Society of London, having seen this instrument, took a description of it, and afterwards, in May, 1731, obtained a patent for it. 4 John Bartram, born in Chester Co, Pennsylvania, in 1701, was a self-taught gentus of varied and extensive attainments. He was a member of several eminent foreign societies, and wrote several communications for the British Philosophical Transactions. At the age of seventy he travelled through East Florida, in order to explore its natural productions, and afterwards published a journal of his observations. David Rittenhouse, an eminent American philosopher, was born at Germantown, Pennsylvania, of German parents, in 1732. He was a clock and mathematical instrument maker by trade. He invented the American orrery, and for some time thought himself the inventor of fluxions. Jonathan Edwards, born at Windsor, Connecticut, in 1703. While engaged in the pas. toral charge of the Stockbridge Indians he composed his masterly disquisition on the "Freedom of the Will " From this scene of labor he was removed to the situation of Presidency of Princeton College in New Jersey, where he died in the year 1758. Jonathan Edwards, D.D., son of the preceding, was elected President of Union College in 1799. hilarity and true politeness. Grahame asserts that "Lord Bella- ANALYSIS. mont was agreeably surprised with the graceful and courteous demeanor of the gentlemen and clergy of Connecticut, and confessed that he found the aspect and address which he thought peculiar to nobility, in a land where this aristocratic distinction was unknown." ity. marks of Grahame. the more Southern colonies. 15. From the writings of one who resided in Boston in 1686, 1. Neto Eng. it appears that "the inhabitants of Massachusetts were at that time land courtesy and hospitaldistinguished in a very high degree by their cheerful vivacity, their hospitality, and a courtesy, the more estimable, that it was indicative of real benevolence." 2" Men," says Grahame, "devoted 2 Just reto the service of God, like the first generations of the inhabitants of New England, carried throughout their lives an elevated strain of sentiment and purpose, which must have communicated some portion of its own grace and dignity to their manners." Of the 3. Manners state of manners and morals in Maryland, Virginia, and the south- and morals of ern colonies generally, we cannot give so gratifying an account. While the upper classes of inhabitants among the southern people were distinguished for a luxurious and expensive hospitality, they were too generally addicted to the vices of card-playing, gambling, and intemperance; while hunting and cock-fighting were favorite amusements of persons of all ranks. 16. Grahame has the following not unphilosophical remarks on 4. Grahame's Virginia hospitality, which is so warmly extolled by Beverley, the early historian of the colony, and the praises of which have been so often reiterated by subsequent writers. "A life like that of the first Virginia colonis s," says Grahame, "remote from crowded haunts, unoccupied by a variety of objects and purposes, and sequestered from the intelligence of passing events, is the life of those to whom the company of strangers is peculiarly acceptable. All the other circumstances of such a lot contribute to the promotion of hospitable habits. As, for many of their hours, the inhabitants can find no more interesting occupation, so, of much of their superfluous produce, they can find no more profitable use than the entertainment of visitors." remarks on the subject of Virginia hospitality. marks. 6. Singular custom men 17. 5Hall, in his "Travels in Canada and the United States," says, 6. Hall's re"Mr. Jefferson told me, that, in his father's time, it was no uncommon thing for gentlemen to post their servants on the main road for the purpose of amicably waylaying and bringing to their houses any travellers who might chance to pass." We are informed of a somewhat similar custom that prevailed among the Quakers of Pennsylvania. Galt, in his Life of West, says, "In the houses of the principal families, the patricians of the country, unlimited hospitality formed a part of their regular economy. It was the custom among those who resided near the highways to make a large fire in the hall, after supper and the last religious exercises of the evening, and to set out a table with refreshments for such travellers as might have occasion to pass during the night; and when the families assembled in the morning they seldom found that their tables had been unvisited." tioned by Gall. rals, c. as the period of the Revolu we approach 18. 7But whatever diversities in manners, morals, and general 7 General as similation of condition might have been found in the several colonies in the early manners, mo periods of their history, yet a gradual assimilation of character, and à gradual advance in wealth, population, and the means of happiness, were observable among all as we approach the period of the Revolution. It cannot be denied, however, that New England colonial character and New England colonial history furnish, on the whole, the most agreeable reminiscences, as well as the most abundant materials for the historian. We also observe much in New tion. 8. Preference given to New England. 9. Happy prospects and tion ANALYSIS England, as we approach the close of her colonial history, that is calculated to gratify the mind that loves to dwell on scenes of subcondition of stantial felicity. We behold, at this period, a country of moderate New Eng land, prior to fertility occupied by an industrious, hardy, cheerful, virtuous, and the Revolu intelligent population, a country where moderate labor earned a liberal reward, where prosperity was connected with freedom, where a general simplicity of manners and equality of condition prevailed, and where the future invited with promises of an enlarging expanse 1. These fair of human happiness and virtue. Such was, briefly, the happy condition of New England, and the domestic prosperity of her people, and, partially so at least, of some of the middle colonies, when the gatherings of that storm began to appear, which, for a while, Feelings with shrouded the horizon of their hopes in darkness and gloom; a period upon which we now look back with feelings of almost terrified awe, at the threatened ruin which impended over our fathers, but period of our with thankful gratitude that the Almighty disposer of events did not desert them when the tempest in its fury was upon them. prospects overclouded. which ice now contem plate this history. Subject of 1. What is said of the which the several wears in American colonies of France and England are involved. 1. Of the several wars in which the American colonies of France and England were involved, it has been observed that all, except the last,-called in America the French and Indian War, originated in European interests, and quarrels between the parent states; and that the colonial hostilities were but secondary movements, incidentally connected with the weightier affairs of Europe. In the French and Indian war, however, a different scene was presented jealousies and disputes of American Indian war. origin, fomented by ambitious rivalries that began with the planting of the French and English colonies, had extended their influence to the Old World, and brought into hostile collision nearly all the states of Europe. 2. Of the French and 3. Of the value of the American possessions of France and England, and of Eng 2. The great value which France and England at this time attached to their possessions in America cannot fail to be remarked in the prodigious efforts which each made land's jeal for universal dominion there; and yet before the close of ousy of her colonies. |