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Rollinton felp

G.WASHINGTON

President of the

United States

Publithid by I-Reid NewYork 1796.

HISTORICAL,

GEOGRAPHICAL, COMMERCIAL,

AND

PHILOSOPHICAL

VIEW

OF THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

AND OF THE

EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS

IN

AMERICA AND THE WEST-INDIES.

BY

W. WINTER BOTHAM.

THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.

IN FOUR VOLUMES,

VOL. I.

NEW-YORK:

PAINTED BY TIEBOUT AND O'BRIEN,

FOR JOHN REID, BOOKSELLER AND STATIONER,

No. 106, WATER-STREET,

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PREFACE,

No

event ever proved fo interefting, to mankind in general and to the inhabitants of Europe in particular, as the difcovery of the new world, and the paffage to India by the Cape of Good Hope: it at once gave rise to a revolution in the commerce and in the power of nations, as well as in the manners industry and government of almost the whole world. At this period new connections were formed by the inhabitants of the most distant regions, for the supply of wants they had never before experienced. The productions of climates fituated under the equator were confumed in countries bordering on the pole ; the industry of the north was tranfplanted to the fouth; and the inhabitants of the weft were clothed with the manufactures of the caft; in fhort, a general intercourfe of opinions, laws and customs, diseases and remedies, virtues and vices, were eftablished amongst men.

In Europe, in particular, every thing has been changed in confequence of its commerce and connection with the American continent; but the changes which took place prior to the late revolution, (which established the liberties of the United States, and transformed the dependent colonies of Britain into an independent commonwealth, or rather a fociety of commonwealths) only ferved to increase the mifery of mankind, adding to the power of defpotifm, and rivetting fafter the fhackles 8 oppreffion; the commerce of Spain, in particular, with new world, has been fupported by a fyftem of rapine, mu and oppreffion; a fyftem that has fpread defolat. hot only in America, but in Europe and Af however, benefitted but little by it, for her ft: and induftry, have evidently declined in p influx of the gold of the new continent.

tain, for a confiderable period, things appeared fomewhat dif ferent; till the epoch of the revolution her commerce with America increased her national strength, and added to her own industry and wealth, while it defolated and ravaged the coaft of Africa.

From the period of the revolution, the influence of America on Europe has been of a different kind: the glorious ftruggle which the United States fuftained, and the inquiries to which that eventful period gave rife, did much to raile mankind from that state of abject slavery and degradation, to which despotism, aided by fuperftition, had funk them: from that period the rights of man began to be understood, and the principles of civil and religious liberty have been canvaffed with a freedom before unknown, and their influence has extended itself from the palace to the cottage in short, the revolution in the late British American colonies bids fair ultimately not only to occasion the emancipation of the other European colonies on that continent, but to accomplish a complete revolution in all the old governments of Europe.

We have already feen a patriot king, aided by a hero who fought for the caufe of freedom under Wafhington, struggling to render his people free and happy; and we have witnessed a perjured defpot expiating his crimes on the icaffold, at the command of a people rouled to a fenfe of their injuries and rights, by men who had affifted in establishing the liberties of America, -In reflecting on thofe fcenes as individuals, we can only lament the want of fuccefs which has attended the former, and regret the crimes of ambitious and unprincipled individuals, which have certainly tarnished, but not deftroyed, the glory of the revolution, which has attended the latter. The ftorm will, lowever, ere long pals away, and returning peace will leave the other nations of Europe at liberty to contemplate without preju dice, not only their own fituation, but the refources of Fiance drawn forth into action under the influence of an energetic government, founded on the will of the people, and administered at an expenfe far lels than what the pentioned minions of its former corrupt court alone devoured. Whenever that period ar. rives, and arrive it will, it needs not a fpirit of inspiration to t, that the other nations of Europe muft fubmit to a thoformation, or be content to behold their commerce, agri_ and population decline.

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