186 SUFFRAGE IN NEW-ENGLAND. CHAP. XI. accomplish the object. Upon the whole, the interest of nearly half the money borrowed has been regularly paid; and when we recollect that no small part of it was lent to new and poor States or Territories, where society is still in a rude, half-formed, and migratory condition, and that the money lent rashly and incautiously was spent, as might have been expected, improvidently, we must view their delinquency with some indulgence, and assign a share, at least, of the blame to the lender. The state of Ohio has always punctually discharged the interest of her debt by direct taxes imposed for that special purpose, although there has been a deficit from the beginning on the proceeds of her public works. She is of recent origin, and her growth has been more rank and luxuriant than that of any other State of the Union. An influx of illiterate Irish, Welsh, and Westphalian settlers, has tended to lower the educational qualifications of her electors, considered as a whole; but she came of a good New-England stock, which, like the philosopher's stone, has converted much of her baser metal into gold. Any foreigner who has hastily embraced the notion that a suffrage virtually universal must be incompatible in the U. S. with order, obedience to the laws, security of property, a high degree of civilization, and the most unimpeachable public credit, has only to make himself acquainted with the present condition of the New-England States, especially Massachusetts, and he will feel satisfied that the charge may be refuted. It is a wholly different question whether so democratic a constitution is equally fitted for the exigencies of many other parts of the Union, where the mass of the people are less advanced in knowledge and wealth, where the force of public opinion and sympathy is checked, and the free communication of thought impeded, by distinctness of races and of language. Although the political constitutions of the several States are all formed on one great model, there exists considerable diversity in the details of their organization. The qualifications of the electors and legislators are not the same in all, nor the modes of appointment or powers of the Executive. There seems, however, a nearer approach to uniformity, than can be consistent with the very different degrees of social advancement and mental cultivation to which these independent States have attained. To defects and blemishes of this kind, the leading statesmen in America are not blind, and both the evils and their remedies are subjects of the freest discussion. In many of the newspapers, and in the monthly and quarterly journals of both parties, in public lectures and speeches at elections, we find, during the last three years, the conduct of repudiating or defaulting States unsparingly condemned. The most carnest appeals are made to the sense of justice and honour, to the religious feelings or national pride, of their hearers or readers; they also tell them that it is their interest to pay, and that, if they cannot be moved by higher motives, they should remember that "Honesty is the best policy." The frequency and earnestness of these exhortations sufficiently prove the conviction of the writers and orators that a reform may be brought about. The mischief that has occurred is sometimes adduced as a proof that education and habits of temperance, although they have made great progress during the last 188 PROSPECTS OF THE REPUBLIC. CHAP. XI. fifteen years, have not yet been carried far enough. A more strict registration of the electors for the sake of putting an end to fraudulent voting, and the exclusion of foreigners from the electoral body, by lengthening the term of naturalization, are measures warmly insisted upon by the party opposed to the extremes of democracy-a party which, so late as the year 1840, obtained a majority in a presidential election, when two millions and a half of persons gave their votes. Sanguine hopes are entertained that the most respectable members of the democratic party will also join in effecting reforms in the electoral system so obviously desirable. It is not simply the fair fame and happiness of eighteen millions of souls which are at stake; for during the lifetime of thousands now taking part in public affairs, or before the close of the present century, the population of the U. S. will probably amount, even on a moderate estimate, to no less than eighty millions.* * Tucker's Progress of the U. S., p. 106. CHAPTER XII. New York City.-Geology.-Distribution of Erratic Blocks in Long Island.-Residence in New York.-Effects on Society of increased Intercourse of distant States.-Separation of the Capital and Metropolis. Climate. - Geology of the Taconic Mountains.— Stratum of Plumbago and Anthracite in the Mica Schist of Worcester.-Theory of its Origin.-Lectures for the Working Classes. -Fossil Foot-prints of Birds in Red Sandstone.—Mount Holyoke. -Visit to the Island of Martha's Vineyard.-Fossil Walrus.— Indians. New York, March, 1842.-THE island on which New York stands is composed of gneiss, as are the cliffs on the left bank of the Hudson, for many miles above. At Hoboken, on the opposite side of the river, cliffs are seen of serpentine, a rock which appears to be subordinate to the gneiss, as in many parts of Norway and Sweden. All these formations, as well as the syenite of Staten Island, correspond very closely with European rocks of the same order. Long Island is about 130 miles in length, and the town of Brooklyn, on its western extremity, may be considered as a suburb of New York. This low island is every where covered with an enormous mass of drift or diluvium, and is the most southern point in the United States, where I saw large erratic blocks in great numbers. Excavations recently made in the Navy Yard at Brooklyn have exposed the boulder formation. to the depth of thirty feet; the lowest portion there seen consisting of red clay and loam, with boulders of trap and sandstone, is evidently the detritus of the New 190 STRATIFIED DRIFT. CHAP. XII. Red Sandstone formation of New Jersey. This mass, in the sections where I observed it, was about eighteen feet thick, and rudely stratified. Above it lay an unstratified grey loam, partly of coarse and partly of fine materials, with boulders and angular blocks of gneiss, syenitic greenstone, and other crystalline rocks, dispersed at random through the loamy base, the whole being covered with loam eight feet thick. One angular block of gneiss, which I measured, was thirteen feet long, by nine in breadth, and five feet high, but masses still larger have been met with, and broken up by gunpowder. Mr. Redfield, who accompanied me to Brooklyn, suggested that the inferior red drift may have been accumulated first when the red sandstone of the neighbouring country was denuded, and that afterwards, when the land was submerged to a greater depth, and when the gneiss and hypogene mountains of the highlands alone protruded above the waters, the upper drift with its erratics may have been thrown down. I am well disposed to adopt this view, because it coincides with conclusions to which I was led by independent evidence, after examining the districts around Lakes Erie and Ontario, viz. that the drift was deposited during the successive submergence of a region which had been previously elevated and denuded, and which had already acquired its present leading geographical features and superficial configuration. At South Brooklyn, I saw a fine example of stratified drift, consisting of beds of clay, sand, and gravel, which were contorted and folded as if by violent lateral pressure, while beds below of similar composition, and equally flexible, remained horizontal. These appearances, which exactly agree with those seen in the drift |