"In the next ten years, the mean population of the decade being about six
and a half millions, the people of the United States extended settlement
over one hundred and two thousand square miles of absolutely new
territory.... No other people could have done this. No: nor the half of
it. Any other of the great migratory races--Tartar, Slav, or
German--would have broken hopelessly down in an effort to compass such a
field in such a term of years."
SUMMARY
The early essays of the period, Paine's _Common Sense_ and the _Crisis_,
Jefferson's _Declaration of Independence_, Hamilton's pamphlets and papers,
all champion human liberty and show the influence of the Revolution. The
orators, James Otis, Patrick Henry, and Samuel Adams, were inspired by the
same cause. The words of Patrick Henry, "Give me liberty or give me death,"
have in them the essence of immortality because they voice the supreme
feeling of one of the critical ages in the world's history.
Benjamin Franklin was the greatest writer of the period. His
_Autobiography_ has a value possessed by no other work of the kind. This
and his _Poor Richard's Almanac_ have taught generations of Americans the
duty of self-culture, self-reliance, thrift, and the value of practical
common sense.
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