422
not exceed 2,500 feet; their greatest elevation is not above 4,000 feet; their rounded summits, and the spacious valleys, which they conceal within their passes, are of easy access from several sides. Beside which, the principal rivers that fall into the Atlantic ocean, the Hudson, the Susquehannah, and the Potomac, take their rise beyond the Alleganies, in an open district, which borders upon the valley of the Mississippi. These streams quit this tract of country,[1] make their way through the barrier which would seem to turn them westward, and as they wind through the mountains, they open an easy and natural passage to man.
No natural barrier exists in the regions which are now inhabited by the Anglo-Americans; the Alleganies are so far from serving as a boundary to separate nations, that they do not even serve as a frontier to the states. New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, comprise them within their borders, and extend as much to the west as to the east of the line.
The territory now occupied by the twenty-four states of the Union, and the three great districts which have not yet acquired the rank of states, although they already contain inhabitants, covers a surface of 1,002,600 square miles,[2] which is about equal to five times the extent of France. Within these limits the qualities of the soil, the temperature, and the produce of the country, are extremely various. The vast extent of territory occupied by the Anglo-American republics has given rise to doubts as to the maintenance of the Union. Here a distinction must be made; contrary interests sometimes arise in the different provinces of a vast empire, which often terminate in open dissensions; and the extent of the country is then most prejudicial to the power of the state. But if the inhabitants of these vast regions are not divided by contrary interests, the extent of the territory may be favourable to their prosperity; for the unity of the government promotes the in-
- ↑ See Darby's View of the United States, pp. 64, 79.
- ↑
See Darby's View of the United States, p. 435. [In Carey & Lea's Geography
of America, the United States are said to form an area of 2,076,400 square miles.—Translator's Note.]
[The discrepance between Darby's estimate of the area of the United States given by the author, and that stated by the translator, is not easily accounted for. In Bradford's comprehensive Atlas, a work generally of great accuracy, it is said that “as claimed by this country, the territory of the United States extends from 25° to 54° north latitude, and from 67° 49′ to 125° west longitude, over an area of about 2,200,000 square miles.”—American Editor.]
