THE INTERNAL STATE OF AMERICA."

Being a true Defeription of the Intereft and Policy of that vaft Continent.

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HERE is a tradition, that, in the planting of New England, the first fettlers met with many difficulties and hardships; as is generally the cafe when a civilized people attempt eftablishing themselves in a wilderness country. Being pioufly difpofed, they fought relief from Heaven, by lay ing their wants and diftreffes before the Lord, in frequent fet days of fafting and prayer. Conftant meditation and difcourfe on thefe fubjects kept their minds gloomy and difcontented; and, like the children of Ifrael, there were many difpofed to return to that Egypt which perfecution had induced them to abandon. At length, when it was propofed in the affembly to proclaim another faft, a farmer of plain fenfe rofe, and remarked, that the inconveniences they fuffered, and concerning which they had fo often wearied heaven with their complaints, were not fo great as they might have expected, and were diminishing every day, as the colony ftrengthened; that the earth began to reward their labour, and to furnish liberally for their fubfiftence; that the feas and rivers were found full of fish, the air fweet, and the climate healthy; and, above all, that they were there in the full enjoyment of liberty, civil and religious: he therefore thought, that reflecting and converfing on thefe fubjects would be more comfortable, as tending

more to make them contented with their fituation; and that it would be more becoming the gratitude they owed to the Divine Being, if, instead of a faft, they should proclaim a thanksgiving. His advice

was taken, and from that day to this they have, in every year, obferved circumftances of public felicity fufficient to furnish employment for a thankfgiving day, which is therefore conftantly ordered. and religiously observed.

I fee in the public newspapers of different ftatesfrequent complaits of hard times, deadness of trade, fcarcity of money, &c. &c. It is not my intention to affert or maintain that thefe complaints are entirely without foundation. There can be no country or nation exifting, in which there will not be fome people fo circumftanced as to find it hard to gain a livelihood; people who are not in the way of any profitable trade, and with whom money is fcarce, because they have nothing to give in exchange for it; and it is always in the power of a fmall number to make a great clamour. But let us take a cool view of the general ftate of our affairs, and perhaps the profpe&t will appear lefs gloomy than has been imagined.

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The great bufinefs of the continent is agriculture. For one artifan, or merchant, I fuppofe, we have at least one hundred farmers, and by far the great-eft part cultivators of their own fertile lands, from: whence many of them draw not only food neceffary for their fubfifience, but the materials of their cloathing, fo as to need very few foreign fupplies; while they have a furplus of productions to difpofe of, whereby wealth is gradually accumulated. Such In as been the goodness of Divine Providence to thefe regions, and fo favourable the climate, that, fince

the three or four years of hardship in the firft fet tlement of our fathers here, a famine or fcarcity has never been heard of amongst us; on the contrary, though fome years may have been more, and others lefs plentiful, there has always been provifion enough for ourfelves, and a quantity to fpare for exportation. And although the crops of laft year were generally good, never was the farmer better paid for the part he can fpare commerce, as the published price currents abundantly teflify. The lands he poffeffes are alfo continually rifinglin value with the increafe of population; and, on the whole, he is enabled to give fuch good wages to those who work for him, that all who are acquainted with the old world muft agree, that in no part of it are the labouring poor fo generally well fed› well clothed, well lodged, and well paid, as in the United States of America,

If we enter the cities, we find that, fince the revolution, the owners of houfes and lots of ground have had their intereft vaftly augmented in value; rents have risen to anaftonishing height, and thence encouragement to increase building, which gives employment to an abundance of workmen, as does. alfo the increafed luxury and fplendour of living of the inhabitants thus made richer. These workmen all demand and obtain much higher wages. than any other part of the world could afford them, and are paid in ready money. This rank of people therefore do not, or ought not, to complain of hard times; and they make a very confiderable part of the city inhabitants.

At the diftance I live from our American fifheries, I cannot speak of them with any degree of certainty; but I have not heard that the labour of

the valuable race of men employed in them is worfe paid, or that they meet with lefs fuccefs, than. before the revolution. The whale-men, indeed have been deprived of one market for their oil but another, I hear, is opening for them, which it is hoped may be equally advantageous; and the demand is constantly increasing for their fpermaceti candles, which there bear a much higher price than formerly.

There remain the merchants and fhop-keepers. Of thefe, though they make but a fmall part of the whole nation, the number is confiderable, too great indeed for the bufinefs they are employed: in; for the confumption of goods in every country has its limits; the faculties of the people, that is, their ability to buy and pay, is equal only to a certain quantity of merchandife. If merchants.

calculate amifs on their proportion and import too much, they will of courfe find the fale dull for the overplus, and fome of them will fay that trade languishes. They should, and doubtlefs will, grow wifer by experience, and import lefs. If too ma

ny artificers in town, and farmers from the country, flattering themfelves with the idea of leading eafier lives, turn fhop-keepers, the whole natural quantity of that bufinefs divided among them all may afford too small a fhare for each, and occafion complaints that trading is dead; thefe may allo fuppofe that it is owing to fcarcity of money, while in fact, it is not fo much from the fewnefs of buyers, as from the exceffive number of fellers, that the mifchief arifes; and, if every fhop-keeping farmen and mechanic would return to the ufe of his plough and working tools, there would remain of widows, and other women, fhop keeperfiuffici

ent for the bufinefs, which might then afford them a comfortable maintenance.

Whoever has travelled through the various partsof Europe, and obferved how small is the proportion of people in affluence or cafy circumstances there, compared with those in poverty and mifery; the few rich and haughty landlords, the multitude of poor, abject, rack-rented, tythe-paying tenants, and half-paid and half-starved ragged labourers; and views here the happy mediocrity that fo gene rally prevails throughout these ftates, where the cultivator works for himself, and fupports his family in decent plenty; will, methinks, fee abun dant reafon to blefs Divine Providence for the evident and great difference in our favour, and be convinced that no nation known to us enjoys a greater fhare of human felicity.

It is true, that in fome of the ftates there are parties and difcords; but let us look back, and afk if we were ever without them? Such will exift wherever there is liberty; and perhaps they help to preferve it. By the collifion of different fentiments, fparks of truth are ftruck out, and political light is obtained. The different factions, which at prefent divide us, aim all at the public good;, the differences are only about the various modes of promoting it. Things, actions, meafures, and objects of all kinds, prefent themselves to the minds › of men in fuch a variety of lights, that it is not poffible we fhould all think alike at the fame time on every subject, when hardly the fame man retains at all times the fame ideas of it. Parties are there fore the common lot of humanity; and ours are by no means more mifchievous or lefs beneficial than thofe of other countries, nations, and ages, enjoy..