We are tillers of the earth.
He is either an European, or the descendant of an European, hence that
strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country.
This is every person's country; the variety of our soils, situations,
climates, governments, and produce, hath something which must please every
body.
Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labour; his labour is founded on the basis of nature, self-interest; can it want a stronger allurement? … I do not mean that every one who comes will grow rich in a little time; no, but he may procure an easy, decent maintenance, by his industry.
It is not every emigrant who succeeds; no, it is only the sober, the honest, and industrious.
There is room for every body in America; has he any particular talent,
or industry…he exerts it in order to procure a livelihood, and it succeeds…
Wives and children, who before in vain demanded of him a morsel of bread,
now, fat and frolicsome, gladly help their father to clear those fields
whence exuberant crops are to arise to feed and to clothe them all…
He meets with hospitality, kindness, and plenty every where; he beholds
hardly any poor, he seldom hears of punishments and executions.
If he is a good man, he forms schemes of future prosperity, he proposes
to educate his children better than he has been educated himself; he thinks
of future modes of conduct, feels an ardor to labour he never felt before.
He now feels himself a man, because he is treated as such.
As Christians, religion curbs them not in their opinions; the general indulgence leaves everyone to think for themselves in spiritual matters.
His country is now that which gives him land, bread, protection, and
consequence.