. The imagination is extinguished by the
trivial details of life, and the ideas become less numerous and less
general, but far more practical and more precise. As prosperity is
the sole aim of exertion, it is excellently well attained; nature and
mankind are turned to the best pecuniary advantage, and society is
dexterously made to contribute to the welfare of each of its members,
whilst individual egotism is the source of general happiness.

The citizen of the North has not only experience, but knowledge:
nevertheless he sets but little value upon the pleasures of knowledge;
he esteems it as the means of attaining a certain end, and he is only
anxious to seize its more lucrative applications. The citizen of the
South is more given to act upon impulse; he is more clever, more frank,
more generous, more intellectual, and more brilliant. The former, with
a greater degree of activity, of common-sense, of information, and of
general aptitude, has the characteristic good and evil qualities of
the middle classes. The latter has the tastes, the prejudices, the
weaknesses, and the magnanimity of all aristocracies. If two men are
united in society, who have the same interests, and to a certain extent
the same opinions, but different characters, different acquirements, and
a different style of civilization, it is probable that these men will
not agree. The same remark is applicable to a society of nations.
Slavery, then, does not attack the American Union directly in its
interests, but indirectly in its manners.

[Footnote e: Census of 1790, 3,929,328; 1830, 12,856,165; 1860,
31,443,321; 1870, 38,555,983; 1890, 62,831,900.]

The States which gave their assent to the federal contract in 1790 were
thirteen in number; the Union now consists of thirty-four members. The
population, which amounted to nearly 4,000,000 in 1790, had more than
tripled in the space of forty years; and in 1830 it amounted to nearly
13,000,000. *e Changes of such magnitude cannot take place without some
danger.

A society of nations, as well as a society of individuals, derives its
principal chances of duration from the wisdom of its members, their
individual weakness, and their limited number. The Americans who quit
the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean to plunge into the western wilderness,
are adventurers impatient of restraint, greedy of wealth, and frequently
men expelled from the States in which they were born. When they arrive
in the deserts they are un