Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/298

 first landing in the country till the present, I have enjoyed intercourse with people of eminence in society, and have uniformly met with the most polite receptions, and, on many occasions, with such marks of kindness that I can never have sufficient opportunities to requite. Names would be altogether uninteresting to you, but there are many here that I cannot recal to recollection without associating them with those of the personages whom I most admire, and of the friends whom I most esteem.

The American community is not, like that of Britain, divided or formed into classes by the distinctions of title and rank, neither does political party seem to form such a complete separation amongst men, and the unequal distribution of property operates much less. The effects of these conditions are, that the individuals who compose our society are less mutually repellent to one another than with you, and the distinctions formed here are of a more natural kind, such as those founded on public services and talents, and the more uninterrupted associations that proceed from the sympathies of human nature. I am almost of opinion that the more extended bonds of American society are much strengthened by universal suffrage, and the frequent recurrence of elections, for this reason, that the candidates having no boroughs to be treated with in the wholesale way, and the constituents being too numerous, and coming too often in the way, to admit of their being bought over, expectants are obliged to depend on their popularity, and do not find it their interest to repulse any one. It is only from these causes that I could attempt {267} to account for the affability of manners which are almost universal. The inhabitants of American towns are not, like some of the people of your cities, ignorant of the names of the persons who live in