stage of civilization. At the extreme borders of the
Confederate States, upon the confines of society and of the wilderness,
a population of bold adventurers have taken up their abode, who pierce
the solitudes of the American woods, and seek a country there, in order
to escape that poverty which awaited them in their native provinces. As
soon as the pioneer arrives upon the spot which is to serve him for a
retreat, he fells a few trees and builds a loghouse. Nothing can offer
a more miserable aspect than these isolated dwellings. The traveller
who approaches one of them towards nightfall, sees the flicker of the
hearth-flame through the chinks in the walls; and at night, if the wind
rises, he hears the roof of boughs shake to and fro in the midst of
the great forest trees. Who would not suppose that this poor hut is the
asylum of rudeness and ignorance? Yet no sort of comparison can be drawn
between the pioneer and the dwelling which shelters him. Everything
about him is primitive and unformed, but he is himself the result of the
labor and the experience of eighteen centuries. He wears the dress,
and he speaks the language of cities; he is acquainted with the past,
curious of the future, and ready for argument upon the present; he is,
in short, a highly civilized being, who consents, for a time, to inhabit
the backwoods, and who penetrates into the wilds of the New World with
the Bible, an axe, and a file of newspapers.

It is difficult to imagine the incredible rapidity with which public
opinion circulates in the midst of these deserts. *j I do not think that
so much intellectual intercourse takes place in the most enlightened
and populous districts of France. *k It cannot be doubted that, in the
United States, the instruction of the people powerfully contributes to
the support of a democratic republic; and such must always be the case,
I believe, where instruction which awakens the understanding is not
separated from moral education which amends the heart. But I by no means
exaggerate this benefit, and I am still further from thinking, as so
many people do think in Europe, that men can be instantaneously made
citizens by teaching them to read and write. True information is mainly
derived from experience; and if the Americans had not been gradually
accustomed to govern themselves, their book-learning would not assist
them much at the present day.

[Footnote j: I travelled along a portion of the frontier of the United