PREFACE

Summary

The writer of these Letters is not without some of the yearnings of paternity in committing the offspring of his brain to the world. His chief concern is that the book may pass as near as possible for what it was intended in the design, however the execution may fall short of the plan.

A close and detailed statistical work on the United States of America, could not keep its place as an authority for five years. What is true this year would the next become liable to so many explanations, that the curious would soon cease to consult its pages. The principles of the government, and the state of society, are certainly more permanent; but the latter varies rapidly in the different stages of a life that is so progressive. Nothing more has, therefore, been attempted here, than to give a hasty and general sketch of most things of interest, and to communicate what is told in as unpretending and familiar a way as the subjects themselves would conveniently allow.

The facts of these volumes are believed to be, in general, correct. The Author does not claim to be exempt from error; but as he has given some thought and a great deal of time to the subjects of which he has treated, he hopes that refutation will not easily attack him in the shape of evidence. His reasoning–if rapid, discursive, and ill-arranged arguments can aspire to so high a name–must, of course, depend on its own value.