Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1835 edition. Excerpt: ... their ancient government, as Stephen Langton, Selden, and Lord Somers, that the liberties of their countrymen should be traced to a similar source. All were alike practical men; all avoided the barren assertion of abstract rights; and the same destiny of continued welfare in all probability awaits Prussia, that has long so blessed our native land. It appears to me, my Lord, that it is destined to the free constitution of the United States of North America to exercise the same fatal influence over the political society of the New World, as the constitution of England has wielded over that of the old. The constitution of the United States was applied to the government of Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chili, by virtue of the same peremptory and abstract principles, that had selected the constitution of England for the government of France, Sicily, Spain, and Portugal; and the same results were acquired. The European and the American States, that have been the victims of this Quixotic spirit of political Propagandism, have vied with each other in successive revolutions, until at length disorder, and even disorganization, have universally prevailed, except where anarchy has been arrested by despotism. Why is this? Why has the republican constitution flourished in New England, and failed in New Spain? Why has the congress of Washington commanded the respect of civilized Europe, and the congresses of Mexico, or Lima, or Santiago, gained only its derision or disgust? The answer is obvious: the constitution of the United States had no more root in the soil of Mexico, and Peru, and Chili, than the constitution of England in that of France, and Spain, and Portugal: it was not founded on the habits or the opinions of those whom it affected to guide, ..