Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/113

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��The view which the United States present; in this and many other respects, is doubtless glori- ous and admirable: the progress which they have, made in only forty years of existence; the rapid increase of their population, their wealth, their physical strength, and their resources, all appear great, if we compare the short period in which they have acquired this power and splendour, with the series of ages which it has required for other na- tions to raise themselves to a flourishing and re- spectable state. But the people of the United States are not, in reality, a new people: they are a mixture of people, who have emigrated from the most civilized nations of Europe, and who have carried with them to that country, all the light and knowledge which these nations have been many ages in acquiring. The extraordinary events which have disturbed and aiflicted all Europe, and the subsequent convulsions in Spanish America, have given to them that wealth, and power, and gran- deur of attitude, of which they now boast.

This people, however, do not appear capable of raising themselves to that colossal greatness to which they aspire, nor to any solid and lasting glory. A compound of individuals of various na- tions, they have no true national character, and devoted to commerce and speculation, interest is their idol. They carried with them to the deserts of North America, the corruption and the vices of

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