THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

CHAPTER I.

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY.

DIVISIONS.—BOUNDARIES. HISTORICAL EPOCHS.

Divisions. THE territories of the United States have been classed under three grand divisions, the northern, the middle, and the southern. But to this division there are many objections.

The northern states are Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the small state of Rhode Island. The district of Maine in this quarter belongs to the state of Massachusetts, and its eastern boundary extends to a river called St. Croix, longitude sixtyseven degrees west from London, while on the north, what is called Albany ridge, divides it from the British possessions. These northern states have been known since the year 1614, by the special appellation of New Englann, and are remarkable for the comparative smallness of the subdivisions, the five provinces being only of similar extent with New York, Pennsylvania, or Virginia.

The middle states are New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the territory on the north-west of the Ohio.

The southern states are, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and the Missisippi territory. The great country of Louisiana, now ceded to the United States, will doubtless, at no very distant period, be divided into several distinct states, and in giving names to these, the Americans will have an opportunity of manifesting their veneration for, and their gratitude to some of the illustrious men who first discovered the countries of the new world, or have contributed to its freedom and happiness.

Divisions. These various states are subdivided into counties, an enumeration of which rather belongs to topography.

BOUNDARIES. The eastern boundary is the Atlantic Ocean, and the western the great river Missisippi, which is considered as a limit of Spanish America. On the north an ideal line, pervading the great lakes of Canada, is continued along the river St. Lawrence to latitude fbrty-fiv« degrees, not far to the south of Montreal; when it passes due east, and follows a chain of mountains north-east and afterwards diverges south-east to the river St. Croix, which fells into the bay of Fundi. On the south a line, merely arbitrary, about latitude thirtyone degrees, divides the United States from the Spanish dominions of West and East Florida.

The greatest extent of the united territory is from east to west, in the northern part, where it exceeds 1300 British miles; and the line along the shores of the Atlantic nearly corresponds: but the breadth, from the Canadian lakes to the southern limit, is about 1000 British miles. The square acres have been computed at 640 millions; and those covered with water being supposed fifty-one millions, there will remain 589 millions of acres.

Original Population. The original population of this extensive and flourishing country consisted of numerous wild and rude tribes, whose denominations and memory have, in many instances, almost perished, but some idea of their manners shall be given in describing the native nations. The progress of the English colonies has been already detailed; and there are numerous descendants of the Germans, Dutch, and Swedes, who formed considerable settlements in this region. After the first ineffectual colony planted by Ralegh, the most important events in the progressive geography were the discover ries of the noble bays of Chesapeak and Delaware*, while the northern lakes, and many other grand features of nature, were disclosed by the French settlers in Canada.

Historical Epochs. Among the chief historical epochs of the United States must first be classed their respective origins, as above explained. The introduction of tobacco in Virginia, 1616: the intended massacre of the English by a native Wirowanee, or chief, 1618, and the subsequent war: the abolition of the first charter, 1624: the struggles against the arbitrary disposition of Charles I; the privileges granted by that monarch, and the loyalty of the Virginians, who did not acknowledge the commonwealth till 1651: the insurrection of Bacon against the authority of Charles II; are epochs of Virginian story. The colony in the northern provinces called New England was chiefly founded by the Puritans, and was strengthened by the intolerant spirit of archbishop Laud, Sectarian subdivisions occasioned new colonics; and the Pequods, a native tribe, were extirpated. The colonies in the south are of more recent foundation, and present still fewer materials for history.

Delaware. By Mr. Pinkerton and other writers, the word is written without the final t. This, though the more proper spelling, is rarely adopted in America. This noble river was for a long time known by the name of South river, to distinguish it from the Hudson, which was called North river. (See the Noria orbis of De Laet, published at Leyden in 1633.) In some of the first printed accounts of Pennsylvania, or as it was then called New Sweden, the Delaware was named Charles river. This river is called by the. Delaware Indians Lennapepr Hittuk, which sicnifies the bidiau river. B.,

In severed systems of geography the original charters and minute events of each state are detailed apart, a plan more reooncileable with topography. The several streams which constitute a large river cannot be delineated in general geography; and far less those provincial epochs which rather belong to a prolix history. It will therefore be sufficient for the present design to commemorate the chief epochs of that contest which terminated in the independence of the United tates. The peace of 1763, after a war of immense expense, was crowned by the cession of Canada, and the consequent annihilation of the French power in North America. Canada was acquired at the price of about fifty times its real value: and the acquisition of Canada was the loss of America: so incapable is human prudence of presaging events, and so often does Providence effect objects by the very means which men emplpy to avert them! For the colonies were not only thus delivered from coHstant fear and jealousy of the French, which bound them to the protection of the parent country, but the vast expenditure of that splendid and absurd war occasioned such An increase of taxation, that the country gentlemen of England were easily induced to wish that a part of it might be borne by the colonies.

1. The Stamp Act, passed in 1765, is considered as the first attempt to raise a supply of British revenue from North America; but by the firm opposition of the colonies it was repealed in 1766. Similar attempts of a more oblique nature were alike unsuccessful: and in 1770 the duties were taken off except three pence a pound on tea which, within the space of half a century, had become a necessary of life.

2. In 1773 an armed schooner stationed off Rhode Island was burnt by the Americans, the first act of open opposition to the parent country.

3. The tea sent by the East India company to the port of Boston in New England was thrown into the sea by seventeen persons in the disguise of American savages. This led to what is called the Boston Port Bill, March 1774, and the act for altering the government of Massachusetts Bay.

4. Deputies met at Philadelphia, 2Cth October, 1774, constituting the first Congress, but independence was not yet asserted. Some military manœuvres of the British General Gage increased the ferment, and a Provincial Congress, presided by Mr. Hancock, assembled at Concord, nineteen miles from Boston.

5. Other acts of the British Parliament, 1775, inflamed the discontents, and the civil war commenced with a skirmish between the British troops and American militia at Lexington. The battle of Bunker's hill, or rather Breed's hill, near Charlestown, was fought on the 17th June 1775. Two days before, the American Congress had appointed George Washington, a native of Virginia, commander of their armies, who in March 1776 catered Boston in triumph.

6. On the 4th of July 1776 the American Congress published their solemn declaration of Independence.

7. On the 30th January 1778 the king of France concluded a treaty with the United States. The surrender of General Burgoyne's army, at Saratoga 17th October 1777, is supposed to have greatly influenced this alliance, so important to Uie interests of the Americans.

8. The surrender of Lord Cornwallis, at York Town, in Virginia, bn the 12th October 1781.

9. The treaty of peace, 30th November, 1782, by which the inde pendence of the United States was solemnly acknowledged after a struggle of seven years* while that between Spain and the United Provinces continued, with some intermissions, for about rixty years: but the profuse expensa of modern warfare counterbalances its brevity.

10. The constitution of the United States having been found imper fect, a new plan was submitted to the several states, and finally receiv ed their approbation, On the 30th of April 1789, General George Washington was inaugurated President of the United States, during the session of Congress at New York. This great man, after serving his country, as its first magistrate, for eight years, retired from public life, and died after a short illness, at the age of sixty-eight years, on the 14th of December, 1799. Mr. John Adams, a native of Massachusetts, who had early distinguished himself in the cause of hil country, was inaugurated Precedent on the 4th of March 1797; and Mr. Thomas Jefferson (the present President) on the 4th of March 1801.*

* Mr. Jefferson is a native of Virginia, where he was born about the year 1741. Previously to his election to the important station whicb he now holds, he had filled several distinguished places, both in the individual government of hil native state, and in that of the United States. He had been governor of Virginia, embassador from the United Stares to the court of France, and Secretary of State to the United States. His Notes on the state of Virginia exhibit Mr. Jefferson in a very favourable point of view as a man of various and correct knowledge. In science, his favourite pursuit* ar« natural philo sophy (including mathematics) and natural history. B.

CHAPTER II.

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY.

RELIGION.--GOVERNMENT.--LAWS.—POPULATION.—ARMY.—KAVI. —REVENUE POLITICAL IMPORTANCE.

RELIGION. THE religion of the United States of America is the reformed system of Christianity: but every sect is liberally treated with universal toleration, or rather equal independence. In Maryland as the first settlers were Roman Catholics, so that system is still very numerous and respectable*; and in Connecticut, the reformed episcopal scheme is admitted. It would be a difficult task to enumerate the various denominations, tenets, and new doctrines, which prevail in the different states; but from the following account of those in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania some judgment may be formed of the whole. Mr. Morse enumerates the sects in Massachusetts in the following order:

Denominations.

Congregationalistst,

Baptists,

Episcopalians,

Supposed number of each denomination.

Number of
Congregations.

Friends or Quakers,

In Philadelphia, the places of public worship are thus numbered:

Mr. Pinkerton says the Roman Catholic system "continues to prepon derate" in Maryland. This is unquestionably an error. B.

†These are moderate independents, who suppose that each congregation possesses complete ecclesiastic power, but profess strict amity with other congregations.