The territory now occupied or possessed6 by the United States of America, forms about one-twentieth part of the habitable earth. But extensive as these confines are, it must not be supposed that the Anglo-American race will always remain within them; indeed, it has already far overstepped them.
There was once a time at which we also might have created a great French nation in the American wilds, to counter-balance the influence of the English upon the destinies of the New World. France formerly7 possessed a territory in North America, scarcely less extensive than the whole of Europe. The three greatest rivers of that continent then flowed within her dominions8. The Indian tribes which dwelt between the mouth of the St. Lawrence and the delta9 of the Mississippi were unaccustomed to any tongue but ours; and all the European settlements scattered10 over that immense region recalled the traditions of our country. Louisburg, Montmorency, Duquesne, Saint-Louis, Vincennes, New Orleans (for such were the names they bore), are words dear to France and familiar to our ears.
But a concourse of circumstances, which it would be tedious to enumerate,{297} have deprived us of this magnificent inheritance. Wherever the French settlers were numerically weak and partially11 established, they have disappeared; those who remain are collected on a small extent of country, and are now subject to other laws. The 400,000 French inhabitants of Lower Canada constitute, at the present time, the remnant of an old nation lost in the midst of a new people. A foreign population is increasing around them unceasingly, and on all sides, which already penetrates12 among the ancient masters of the country, predominates in their cities, and corrupts13 their language. This population is identical with that of the United States; it is therefore with truth that I asserted that the British race is not confined within the frontiers of the union, since it already extends to the northeast.
To the northwest nothing is to be met with but a few insignificant14 Russian settlements; but to the southwest, Mexico presents a barrier to the Anglo-Americans. Thus, the Spaniards and the Anglo-Americans are, properly speaking, the only two races which divide the possession of the New World. The limits of separation between them have been settled by a treaty; but although the conditions of that treaty are exceedingly favorable to the Anglo-Americans, I do not doubt that they will shortly infringe15 this arrangement. Vast provinces, extending beyond the frontiers of the union toward Mexico, are still destitute16 of inhabitants. The natives of the United States will forestall17 the rightful occupants of these solitary18 regions. They will take possession of the soil, and establish social institutions, so that when the legal owner arrives at length, he will find the wilderness19 under cultivation20, and strangers quietly settled in the midst of his inheritance.
The lands of the New World belong to the first occupants and they are the natural reward of the swiftest pioneer. Even the countries which are already peopled will have some difficulty in securing themselves from this invasion. I have already alluded22 to what is taking place in the province of Texas. The inhabitants of the United States are perpetually migrating to Texas, where they purchase land, and although they conform to the laws of the country, they are gradually founding the empire of their own language and their own manners. The province of Texas is still part of the Mexican dominions, but it will soon contain no Mexicans: the same thing has occurred whenever the Anglo-Americans have come into contact with populations of a different origin.
{The prophetic accuracy of the author, in relation to the present actual condition of Texas, exhibits the sound and clear perception with which he surveyed our institutions and character.—American Editor.}
It cannot be denied that the British race has acquired an amazing preponderance over all the other European races in the New World; and that it is very superior to them in civilisation23, in industry, and in power. As long as it is only surrounded by desert or thinly-peopled countries, as long as it encounters no dense populations upon its route, through which it cannot work its way, it will assuredly continue to spread. The lines marked out by treaties will not stop it; but it will everywhere transgress24 these imaginary barriers.
The geographical25 position of the British race in the New World is peculiarly favorable to its rapid increase. Above its northern frontiers the icy regions of the pole extend; and a few degrees below its southern confines lies the burning climate of the equator. The Anglo-Americans are therefore placed in the most temperate26 and habitable zone of the continent.
It is generally supposed that the prodigious27 increase of population in the United States is posterior to their declaration of independence. But this is an error: the population increased as rapidly under the colonial system as it does at the present day; that is to say, it doubled in about twenty-two years. But this proportion, which is now applied28 to millions, was then applied to thousands, of inhabitants; and the same fact which was scarcely noticeable a century ago, is now evident to every observer.
The British subjects in Canada, who are dependent on a king, augment29 and spread almost as rapidly as the British settlers of the United States, who live under a republican government. During the war of independence, which lasted eight years, the population continued to increase without intermission in the same ratio. Although powerful Indian nations allied30 with the English existed, at that time, upon the western frontiers, the emigration westward31 was never checked. While the enemy laid waste the shores of the Atlantic, Kentucky, the western parts of Pennsylvania, and the states of Vermont and of Maine were filling with inhabitants. Nor did the unsettled state of the constitution, which succeeded the war, prevent the increase of the population, or stop its progress across the wilds. Thus, the difference of laws, the various conditions of peace and war, of order and of anarchy32, have exercised no perceptible influence upon the gradual development of the Anglo-Americans. This may be readily understood: for the fact is, that no causes are sufficiently33 general to exercise a simultaneous influence over the whole of so extensive a territory. One portion of the country always offers a sure retreat from the calamities34 which afflict35 another part; and however great may be the evil, the remedy which is at hand is greater still.
It must not, then, be imagined that the impulse of the British race in the New World can be arrested. The dismemberment of the union, and the hostilities36 which might ensue, the abolition37 of republican institutions, and the tyrannical government which might succeed it, may retard38 this impulse, but they cannot prevent it from ultimately fulfilling the destinies to which that race is reserved. No power upon earth can close upon the emigrants39 that fertile wilderness which offers resources to all industry and a refuge from all want. Future events, of whatever nature they may be, will not deprive the Americans of their climate or of their inland seas, of their great rivers or of their exuberant40 soil. Nor will bad laws, revolutions, and anarchy, be able to obliterate41 that love of prosperity and that spirit of enterprise which seem to be the distinctive42 characteristics of their race, or to extinguish that knowledge which guides them on their way.
Thus, in the midst of the uncertain future, one event at least is sure. At a period which may be said to be near (for we are speaking of the life of a nation), the Anglo-Americans will alone cover the immense space contained between the polar regions and the tropics, extending from the coasts of the Atlantic to the shores of the Pacific ocean. The territory which will probably be occupied by the Anglo-Americans at some future time, may be computed43 to equal three-quarters of Europe in extent.{298} The climate of the union is upon the whole preferable to that of Europe, and its natural advantages are not less great; it is therefore evident that its population will at some future time be proportionate to our own. Europe, divided as it is between so many different nations, and torn as it has been by incessant44 wars and the barbarous manners of the Middle Ages, has notwithstanding attained45 a population of 410 inhabitants to the square league.{299} What cause can prevent the United States from having as numerous a population in time?
Many ages must elapse before the divers46 offsets47 of the British race in America cease to present the same homogeneous characteristics; and the time cannot be foreseen at which a permanent inequality of conditions will be established in the New World. Whatever differences may arise, from peace or from war, from freedom or oppression, from prosperity or want, between the destinies of the different descendants of the great Anglo-American family, they will at least preserve an analogous48 social condition, and they will hold in common the customs and the opinions to which that social condition has given birth.
In the Middle Ages, the tie of religion was sufficiently powerful to imbue49 all the different populations of Europe with the same civilisation. The British of the New World have a thousand other reciprocal ties; and they live at a time when the tendency to equality is general among mankind. The Middle Ages were a period when everything was broken up; when each people, each province, each city, and each family, had a strong tendency to maintain its distinct individuality. At the present time an opposite tendency seems to prevail, and the nations seem to be advancing to unity50. Our means of intellectual intercourse51 unite the most remote parts of the earth; and it is impossible for men to remain strangers to each other, or to be ignorant of the events which are taking place in any corner of the globe. The consequence is, that there is less difference, at the present day, between the Europeans and their descendants in the New World, than there was between certain towns in the thirteenth century, which were only separated by a river. If this tendency to assimilation brings foreign nations closer to each other, it must a fortiori prevent the descendants of the same people from becoming aliens to each other.
The time will therefore come when one hundred and fifty millions of men will be living in North America,{300} equal in condition, the progeny52 of one race, owing their origin to the same cause, and preserving the same civilisation, the same language, the same religion, the same habits, the same manners, and imbued53 with the same opinions, propagated under the same forms. The rest is uncertain, but this is certain; and it is a fact new to the world—a fact fraught54 with such portentous55 consequences as to baffle the efforts even of the imagination.
There are, at the present time, two great nations in the world, which seem to tend toward the same end, although they started from different points; I allude21 to the Russians and the Americans. Both of them have grown up unnoticed; and while the attention of mankind was directed elsewhere, they have suddenly assumed a most prominent place among the nations; and the world learned their existence and their greatness at almost the same time.
All other nations seem to have nearly reached their natural limits, and only to be charged with the maintenance of their power; but these are still in the act of growth;{301} all the others are stopped, or continue to advance with extreme difficulty; these are proceeding56 with ease and with celerity along a path to which the human eye can assign no term. The American struggles against the natural obstacles which oppose him; the adversaries57 of the Russian are men; the former combats the wilderness and savage58 life; the latter, civilisation with all its weapons and its arts; the conquests of the one are therefore gained by the ploughshare; those of the other, by the sword. The Anglo-American relies upon personal interest to accomplish his ends, and gives free scope to the unguided exertions59 and common sense of the citizens; the Russian centres all the authority of society in a single arm; the principal instrument of the former is freedom; of the latter, servitude. Their starting-point is different, and their courses are not the same; yet each of them seems to be marked out by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe.
The End
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inquiry
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detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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descry
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| v.远远看到；发现；责备 | |
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dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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possessed
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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dominions
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delta
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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penetrates
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| v.穿过( penetrate的第三人称单数 )；刺入；了解；渗透 | |
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corrupts
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insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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infringe
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destitute
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forestall
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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transgress
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| vt.违反，逾越 | |
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geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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temperate
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| adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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augment
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| vt.(使)增大，增加，增长，扩张 | |
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allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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anarchy
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| n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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afflict
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| vt.使身体或精神受痛苦，折磨 | |
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hostilities
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| n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事 | |
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abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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retard
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| n.阻止，延迟；vt.妨碍，延迟，使减速 | |
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emigrants
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| n.（从本国移往他国的）移民( emigrant的名词复数 ) | |
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exuberant
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| adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的 | |
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obliterate
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| v.擦去，涂抹，去掉...痕迹，消失，除去 | |
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distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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computed
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| adj.[医]计算的，使用计算机的v.计算，估算( compute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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offsets
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| n.开端( offset的名词复数 )；出发v.抵消( offset的第三人称单数 )；补偿；（为了比较的目的而）把…并列（或并置）；为（管道等）装支管 | |
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analogous
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| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
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imbue
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| v.灌输(某种强烈的情感或意见)，感染 | |
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unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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progeny
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| n.后代，子孙；结果 | |
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imbued
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| v.使（某人/某事）充满或激起（感情等）( imbue的过去式和过去分词 )；使充满；灌输；激发（强烈感情或品质等） | |
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fraught
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| adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的 | |
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portentous
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| adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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adversaries
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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