POLITICAL CHARACTER. 19

of the country from its colonial condition to the
present period:—

"It is but forty years since the revolutionary
war closed, and the United States took their sta-
tion among the independent powers of the ciril-
ized world. From the peace of 1763, which ren-
dered England master of all North America as
far as the Mississippi, the colonies began to feel
strength. The attempts of the mother country
to tax them, without the consent of their own
representatives, kindled the flames of insurrec-
tion. The spirited resistance made at Bunker
Hill in 1775, showed that the Americans would
not be easily conquered, if they found an able
leader—as they did find in the brave and pru-
dent Washington. By and by, the wisdom of
Franklin was employed in fixing the basis of a
free constitution, and the independence of the
states was proclaimed on the 4th of July, 1776,
France and Spain concluded an alliance with the
new republic, and the English, after having wit-
nessed the humiliation of their armies by the de-
feats of Burgoyne and Cornwallis, were con-
strained to acknowledge the indepedence of the
colonies in Nov. 1782. Since this period, their
progress has been unexampled. There were
thirteen states in the Union when the war com-
menced, and there are now twenty-four; and
their population, which then amounted to two
millions and a half, is now ten millions. In
1805, they acquired by purchase the vast terri-
tory of Louisiana—under which name was then