subject, that the direct descendants of many a failing line,
which the policy of England has seen fit to sustain by collateral supporters,
are now discharging the simple duties of citizens in the bosom of this republic.
The hive has remained stationary, and they who flutter around the venerable
straw are wont to claim the empty distinction of antiquity, regardless alike of
the frailty of their tenement and of the enjoyments of the numerous and vigorous
swarms that are culling the fresher sweets of a virgin world. But as this is a
subject which belongs rather to the politician and historian than to the humble
narrator of the home-bred incidents we are about to reveal, we must confine our
reflections to such matters as have an immediate relation to the subject of the
tale.
    Although the citizen of the United States may claim so just an ancestry, he
is far from being exempt from the penalties of his fallen race. Like causes are
well known to produce like effects. That tribute, which it would seem nations
must ever pay, by way of a weary probation, around the shrine of Ceres before
they can be indulged in her fullest favours, is in some measure exacted in
America, from the descendant instead of the ancestor. The march of civilization
with us, has a strong analogy to that of all coming events, which are known to
cast their shadows before. The gradations of society, from that state which is
called refined to that which approaches as near barbarity as connexion with an
intelligent people will readily allow, are to be traced from the bosom of the
states, where wealth, luxury and the arts are beginning to seat themselves, to
those distant, and ever-receding borders which mark the skirts, and announce the
approach, of the nation, as moving mists precede the signs of day.
    Here, and here only, is to be found that widely spread, though far from
numerous class, which may be at all likened to those who have paved the way for
the intellectual progress of nations, in the old world. The resemblance between
the American borderer and his European prototype is singular, though not always
uniform. Both might be called without restraint; the one being above, the other
beyond the reach of the law - brave, because they were inured to dangers -
proud, because they were independent, and vindictive, because each was the
avenger of his own wrongs. It would be unjust to the borderer to pursue the
parallel much farther. He is irreligious, because he has inherited the knowledge
that religion does not exist in forms, and his reason rejects a mockery. He is
not