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RESEARCHES 
 
 UPON THE 
 
 VITAL DYIAMICS 
 
 OF 
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT 
 
 13 V 
 
 BENNET DOWLER, M. D., 
 
 OF NEW-ORLEANS, 
 
 CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA &C 
 
 
 Wherever there are most happiness and virtue, and the 
 wisest institutions, there will be the most people. — Hume. 
 
 I [Reprinted from the New-Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal.] 
 
 NEW.ORLEANS : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY WELD & CO., NO. 72 CAMP STREET. 
 
 JOSEPH COHN, PRINTER, NO. 31 POYDRAS STREET. 
 
 1849. 
 
1. 
 
 l> 
 
 tf>$t 
 
 TO THE 
 
 MEMORY 
 
 OF OUR 
 
 AJNGLO AMERICAN ANCESTORS, 
 
 THE PUREST PATRIOTS THAT EVER DESCENDED TO THE TOMB J 
 
 SAGES, 
 
 WHOSE GENIUS DISCOVERED, AND WHOSE EXAMPLE ENFORCED 
 
 THE PRINCIPLE OF 
 
 REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT, 
 
 WHICH HAS CONTRIBUTED, BESIDES ITS MULTITUDINOUS BLESSINGS, 
 
 CIVIL, SOCIAL, MORAL AND PHYSICAL, 
 
 A NEW ELEMENT OF VITAL PROGRESSION, 
 
 THIS MONOGRAPH 
 
 IS DEDICATED. 
 

 RESEARCHES 
 
 UPON THE 
 
 VITAL DYNAMICS 
 
 of 
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT 
 
 la constructing the following monograph, the work of two days, the 
 scissors, rather than the pen, has been applied, that is to say, portions 
 of a MS. work on Vital Statistics have been cut out without having 
 been, with few exceptions, revised, copied, and connected by the rationa- 
 tive and inductive processes necessary to give full effect to the leading 
 argument, the weak points of which, are not, therefore, guarded, nor 
 apparent contradictions reconciled, nor objections anticipated and 
 answered. The facts adduced may not prove the doctrine with which 
 they have been here associated, but they are not, for that reason, the 
 less worthy of a careful study ; for, if they do not justify the suggestions 
 thrown out, they may awaken inquiry, and lead to a more philosophical 
 interpretation. It is right to apprise the reader, that I have examined 
 the most authentic works illustrative of vital dynamics, (though that 
 examination may not appear in this paper,) including phrenology, eth- 
 nology, psychology, social physics, climatic agencies, the perturbations 
 of immigrations, and emigrations, the geographical distribution of races, 
 the density of population, mortality, marriage, births, the mean duration 
 of life, the physical comforts, as food; also pauperism, industry, capital, 
 education, not to name that all-comprehending subject vaguely denomi- 
 nated civilization. The theory of the abundance of the physical com- 
 forts as the cause of vital progression, will doubtlessly command the 
 
greatest number of suffrages,— a theory that I had formerly adopted, bu« 
 which does not now seem to me altogether satisfactory. Without 
 attempting to explain their modes of operation, I propose at present, to 
 suggest some other elements as suitable to be added to the composition 
 of vital causation, — elements, which carry with them more or less proba- 
 bility, though they may fall short of demonstration, — one of these, is as 
 entirely American as the potato and maize, and has contributed, per- 
 haps, more than both the latter, to the vital advancement of mankind, 
 
 an element, the most luminous, Christianity excepted, that has ever 
 
 been developed in the history of the human race. 
 
 Civil polity, so far as it affects vital increment and decrement, longevity 
 and salubrity, and, the science of population generally, is as much a 
 medical question, as vaccination or quinine. Bentham says, "Of all 
 actions of man, those which preserve the individual, and those which 
 preserve the species, are undoubtedly the most beneficial to the com- 
 munity." * 
 
 Since the commencement of history, never did a single year include 
 within its orbit so many great, yet incomplete events, affecting the 
 civil and social conditions of society, as that of the past year — events, 
 that must long influence for good or evil, the vital progression of the 
 world. The Representative Principle is now extensively arrayed against 
 the Monarchical, the Sovereignty of People against the Sovereignty of 
 Kings, and the long established claims of hereditary absolutism. What- 
 ever may be the denouement of this grand drama, it cannot fail to interest 
 the physiologist, as well as the philanthropist, the vital statistician, as well 
 as the statesman. The paleontologist who explores with enthusiasm 
 the fossilized remains of former worlds, and is lost in amazement in con- 
 templating the catastrophes by which entire races of animals and plants 
 have been wholly lost, has for his study, a subject less curious and less 
 interesting than the vital ethnologist of the present era. 
 
 The perturbations of the present, and the uncertainties of the future, 
 can only be comprehended, if at all, by the lights of the past. 
 
 If vital progression, in the Caucasian race, be the result of several an- 
 tecedents, it is probable that the form of government, other things being 
 equal, is the principal element of acceleration, or retardation, according 
 as this government approximates the representative, or monarchial 
 principle. Climate, territorial expansion, the mere physical comforts, 
 exemption from epidemics, immigration, are not the sole causes of vital 
 movement. 
 
 If the limits of this paper would allow, it could be shown that the 
 dynamical principle of population in the United States is not owing to 
 immigration — that the ratio of increase has not been greatly influenced 
 from this cause at any decennial period of enumeration. The present 
 one may prove an exception. 
 
 Among the numerous examples of Dr. Franklin's sagacity and fore- 
 sight, not the least striking is his statement concerning the progress of 
 population in North Ameriea, made in 1751, at a period when he had 
 not the benefit of the accurate data furnished by a single census. He 
 then estimated "the number of English souls at upwards of one million, 
 
 * Social Science, i, 137, 141. 
 
though scarcely 80,000 had been brought over the sea,'' and yet, he 
 adds, " perhaps there is not one the fewer in Britain. This million, 
 doubling once in twenty five years " 4*c. Here the ratio of increase, is 
 indicated, (though a little lower than the reality). Every decennial 
 census since taken, confirms his opinion, with this slight exception. 
 
 Dr. Seybert, one of the most voluminous writers on American statis- 
 tics, estimates for the thirty years ending in 1810, that the average an- 
 nual number of immigrants did not exceed six thousand. In his work, 
 published in 1818, he estimates the emigrants from Europe during the 
 twenty years preceding, at 120,000, and their increase at the extraordi- 
 nary rate of 5 per cent per annum, as making in this period, 180,000, 
 which, when deducted from the total increase for twenty years, namely, 
 2,824,910, will leave 2,644,910, for the augmentation independent of any 
 from abroad ; " or, the duplication of the free whites without the emi- 
 grants" Hence, he concluded, that in 20 years our population had been 
 immaterially augmented by immigration. He says that the number of 
 emigrants (immigrants) for ten years ending in 1806, was only 4,000 
 each year, and that, in 1817, only 22,240 passengers arrived, both citi- 
 zens and aliens, including 877 at New Orleans. 
 
 By the official report of the State department, for the year ending on 
 the 30th of September 1844, the whole number of passengers arriving in 
 the United States from other countries, amounted to 84,764. It is prob- 
 able that the greater proportion of these did not settle in the country, 
 but came only on business or for pleasure. It will be seen, that if 
 New York be excepted, about one sixth of the residue were landed at 
 New Orleans. This branch of the subject is too extensive for this 
 paper. 
 
 Nor is there room, in this paper, to show, that our Pilgrim fathers 
 settled the least fertile, the least genial, and the least salubrious portion 
 of the new Continent, nor that they had been preceded more than a 
 century by numerous emigrants, aided by powerful navies and well ap- 
 pointed armies, all of whom, were ambitious to conquer the effeminate 
 and almost unresisting nations that possessed the new, mysterious world, 
 which teemed with all the elements of natural wealth, and mineral 
 treasures — plains almost as vast as the ocean, stretching from the pla- 
 teaux of Mexico and the llanos of Caraccas, to the pampas of the Rio 
 de la Plata. It could be shown that the Caucasians of North America 
 were not only few in number, poor, unsupported, but were exposed to a 
 rigorous climate, to hardships, to epidemics, to starvation, and to the 
 ceaseless hostilities of the most courageous savages known to history, 
 whereby more than half of the immigrants came to an untimely end — 
 that North America is, I repeat it, naturally inferior in extent, in fertility, 
 in climate, and in salubrity, to South America. In the latter, the 
 domestic animals* brought from Europe, soon multiplied without human 
 care, darkening the face of the great central plains, affording an inex- 
 haustible supply of animal food, over a space wherein the entire popu- 
 
 * In Chili horses sold for a dollar each. In 1798 Buenos Ayres exported 
 43,752 horse hides, and 874,593 cow hides. According to the eloquent Prescott, 
 Cortez had less than 20 horses when he invaded Mexico. The sight of a horse 
 was the most terrible object in nature to a Mexican. 
 
lation of Europe, might, at this day, live without being crowded — plains, 
 (plateaux, llanos, pampas), which, elevated about two hundred feet, 
 give, including those depressed valleys of the Amazon, an area, accor- 
 ding to Humboldt, of at least three millions of square miles — more than 
 sixty times as large as Louisiana. 
 
 These topographical allusions, (which may be again indulged in), 
 are deemed important, as they completely overthrow some of the theo- 
 ries of vital science, which have been proposed in Europe, as explana- 
 tory of the Progress of the Northern Republic. Mr. Sadler, member 
 of Parliament, author of two volumes on " The law of Population" 
 assumes as his fundamental position, " that the fecundity of human 
 beings is inversely as their numbers on a given area" — the greater the 
 space, the greater the increase ! This doctrine is as clearly opposed 
 to the facts developed in America, as any doctrine can be. Nor is the 
 doctrine, founded on Food, completely satisfactory ; it does not account 
 for the phenomena in question. Indeed, according to a late writer, 
 Mr. Doubleday, an abundance or plethora of food is the true cause of 
 the extinction of both animals and plants. His work has for its title, 
 " The true law of Population, shown to be connected with the Food of 
 the People" Hence, he attempts to account for the extinction of the 
 English nobility and the decline among the Quakers, on the assumption, 
 that "plethora of food prevents increase" ! The Nobility eat too much ! 
 — a fault, sometimes, charged against Americans, though, as yet, no 
 infecundily has been observed among them, nor among their domestic 
 animals. Mr. D's doctrine, if true, would be very acceptable to lazy 
 farmers, who wish to increase their live stock, since it goes to show 
 that an abundance of food will not be necessary, nay, will be mis- 
 chievous by " preventing increase." In the magnificent countries of 
 South America, the cattle multiply as the sand on the sea shore, though 
 food is in abundance, while man alone is stationary, or is declining. 
 
 Everywhere, says Humboldt, " in the Spanish colonies, the places 
 the first peopled are now the most desert."* This downward tendency 
 of all the races, white, black, red, and mixed, is not arrested by exu- 
 berance of food, nor by moderation, nor by scarcity, nor by the diffusion 
 of population, nor by the concentration of population, nor by any known 
 modification of climate, as will be seen hereafter. 
 
 Has not the monarchial principle, (including under that term the hier- 
 archy, and the miscalled republicanism of the South,) retarded the de- 
 velopment of population ? A rapid survey of several countries where 
 monarchy has prevailed in the new Continent, may prove acceptable, 
 even if it fail to demonstrate the hypothesis under consideration. It is 
 not intended to discuss the ecclesiastical polity of the South, so funda- 
 mentally different from that of the North. The hierarchy, in itself, in 
 its divine mission, is not within the pale of vital statistics, except so far 
 as it becomes an accelerating or a retarding element in the science of 
 population. The military despotisms, called republics, have not, prac- 
 tically speaking, attained to the North American representative prin- 
 ciple, any more than the Ottoman Empire. With respect to the 
 Southern hierarchy, Humboldt says, after personal observation, " that 
 
 * Narrat vh\ 136. 
 
the feeble civilization introduced by the Spanish Monks pursue- a 
 retrograde course." (Nar. v. 117.) 
 
 The population of Mexico, is now loss than it was throe centuries 
 ago, the white race not exceeding one million, perhaps not 800,000, 
 Peru has less than a million* of all colors, and is depopulating, parti- 
 cularly with reference to the white race, which latter does not equal 
 the population of Cincinnati. Lima, founded in 1534, has fewer souls 
 than the second Municipality of New Orleans. 
 
 Bolivia, and Chili, each, contain but little over a million, while 
 Buenos Ayres or the Argentine Republic, does not contain a quarter 
 of a million, and, of the numerous republics, (13), composing the Ar- 
 gentine Confederation, some contain only ten thousand inhabitants, 
 three under 20,000, seven under 40,000, and none reaching one hun- 
 dred thousand, except Paraguay, which has only a nominal connection 
 with the confederation. Mr. Macgregor, mentions one of these states, 
 Missiones, as having declined from one hundred thousand to ten 
 thousand ! 
 
 The Republic of Uruguay, upon 09,000 square miles, has onlyl 15,000 
 inhabitants, many of whom have estates containing from 60,000 to 
 200,000 cattle.f Central America one and a half millions, only 1 in 3 2 of 
 whom are white. Venezuela covers 410,000 square miles, and had in 
 1800, according to Humboldt and Lavaysse, 900,000 inhabitants, but in 
 1841 the Minister of the Interior reported the number at 887,168, a de- 
 crease ofneprly 13,000. The Cities of Caraccas and Valencia have now 
 about the same number of inhabitants as in 1810, the latter founded in 
 1555, has only 10,000. 
 
 Venezuela, upon an area of 410,000 square miles, had in 1800 only 
 900,000 inhabitants, but in 1841, according to the Minister of the 
 Interior, the number had declined to 887,168. " The people of the 
 United States," says Mr. Macgregor, " would people a thoroughly new 
 country of equal extent and riches as Venezuela, with an equal popu- 
 lation in less than ten years." This is one of the best wheat coun- 
 tries.:): M. Lavaysse says, that here may be seen associations of 
 horses, in companies and armies, ranging from 500 to 1,000, regularly 
 commanded by three or four chiefs of their number, which send out 
 advanced scouts, placing a guard in the rear, all marching four abreast, 
 ready to attack their enemies, as the jaguars, and even man, upon 
 whom they leap. Upon the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, three millions of 
 these animals roam without owners. § Man, I repeat it, is alone 
 unprogressive. The cities of Valencia, Caraccas, Truxillo, and many 
 others, founded nearly three centuries ago, have not advanced, nay, 
 have in many cases declined greatly in population, in modern times. 
 
 French Guayana, 22,000 square miles, had in 1834 only 22,000 
 
 * Capt. Wilkes : Macgregor gives a higher estimate. 
 
 f Macgregor. Prog. Amer. i. 10 34. 
 
 | According to Humboldt, New Grenada, Buenos Ayres, and other portions 
 of South America yield from 3,000 to 3,200 pounds of wheat per acre — four 
 times as much as Northern countries — the French soil yielding only from 1,000 
 to 1,200 pounds. (Narrative. 7 vols., London, 181 1 to 1829.) 
 
 8 lb. 
 
mm\ti — Dutch Guayana, 50,000 sq. miles, 83,000 — English Guayana 
 76,000 square miles, settled in 1580, population in 1847 — 4,000 
 whites ; Coolies and colored 94,000 — Republic of Ecuador 320,000 
 square miles ; population in 1827, but 492,000 ; in 1846 only 550,000 
 of all races — the whites were one-fourth. 
 
 The Villa de Upata, the Capital of the Missions to Santa Maria, was 
 founded in 1762. Thirty-five years after it contained only 657 souls, 
 and in 1803 it had increased only 112. In four other towns mentioned 
 by Humboldt, in twenty-one years ending in 1818, the population had 
 declined one-third. 
 
 The city of Para, l-£° south of the equator, at the mouth of the 
 greatest river of the world, of unknown depth, was founded 103 years 
 before New Orleans, and had, according to Mr. Edwards, only 15,000 
 souls in the year 1846, (voy. 25.) Mr. E. says, this river affords from 
 40,000 to 50,000 miles of navigation. " The climate being peculiarly 
 healthy, there being no kind of epidemic, — its valley being as much 
 superior to that of the Mississippi as the latter is to that of the Hudson." 
 ; (249,250.) Brazil covers an area nearly as large as Europe — about 
 fifty-six times larger than Louisiana — nearly twenty-three times larger 
 than the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and possesses (as the Rev. 
 Mr. Kidder, in his new work asserts,) " not only whatever is beautiful, 
 whatever is luxuriant, and whatever is magnificent in nature, but it 
 enjoys a pleasant and salubrious climate — a degree of healthfulness 
 unknown, &c," (ii, 387.) He quotes M. Denis as showing " that the 
 influence of the climate and scenery is peculiarly calculated to inspire 
 sublimity of thought, and to promote the power of the imagination," 
 (ii, 397.) Mr. Edwards, after personal observation, says that "the 
 climate of that country is singularly healthy, the heat being less 
 oppressive under the equator than in New York." The estimates of 
 the population of Brazil differ, ranging from 2|- to 4| millions, of all 
 colors. The former population was far greater, without doubt. The 
 Huguenots in 1555 attempted to colonize Brazil. Their poor success 
 was, doubtlessly, owing to the very despotism, which they, like our more 
 fortunate ancestors, sought to escape in the wilds of the west. I will 
 not stop here to show that the political principle of the North was 
 rather the cause than the effect of the liberal ecclesiastical polity 
 which prevails, and which is now more thoroughly democratic, in some 
 of the churches than in any of the States. The political principle 
 divorced the ecclesiastical, not the ecclesiastical the political, as an 
 element or essential condition of the government — a divorce that has 
 proved most beneficial. The connection of the Church and the State 
 exerts an unfavorable influence upon the science of population, greater 
 than famine, as the sequel may show. 
 
 The whole of Spanish America, North and South, including the 
 West Indies, under the monarchy, did not probably exceed fifteen mil- 
 lions of souls, reckoning the white, red, black and mixed races. Of 
 this number about one fifth, equal to the present population of the State 
 of New York, were whites. Balbi, and some others, estimate the 
 entire population of the American Continent at thirty-nine millions ; 
 Malte-Brun at forty-five. South of the United States, including insular 
 America, I estimate the number at twenty millions, one-third being in 
 
Mexico; five out of twenty millions being white. This estimate is 
 based, not upon geographies, but upon the most recent books of travel 
 and upon the best documents. These differ, however, greatly. 
 
 Thus it appears, that in three centuries, the entire Caucasian race in 
 both Americas, South of the United States, has not equalled numeri- 
 cally, that portion of the Union lying West of the Alleghany mountains, 
 settled by the present generation amid the conflicts of prolonged savage 
 wars with the bravest and most sanguinary nations known in all history. 
 
 The vital statistics of South America, indicates extinction, or at least, 
 decline as the probable resultants of the monarchical and military 
 despotisms which have prevailed, and still prevail upon the fairest 
 portion of the globe. Statistical writers, in Europe, struck with these 
 astonishing facts, are beginning to speak strongly upon this subject, 
 and boldly to declare, that the absorption of these countries by the 
 Northern Republic, is inevitable as a political event, and desirable as a 
 vital one. The morality of this question does not belong to vital 
 statistics. " The Anglo-American republic," says Mr. Macgregor, in 
 his late work on America, will overwhelm the whole hemisphere, from 
 Hudson's Bay to Terra del Fuego. This is no prophecy. It is a clear 
 daylight forecast of that not-to-be-arrested progress which is the inevi- 
 table destiny of America," (i, 199.) 
 
 This gentleman, Her Majesty's Secretary of the Board of Trade, 
 adds, (this subject may be alluded to again,) as follows : " The 
 inhabitants of the four New England Provinces were principally the 
 descendants of those stubborn republicans, who fled from England to 
 enjoy their own ideas of politics and religion. They retained the 
 haired of their ancestors to hereditary kingly authority, and the 
 strongest aversion to any endowed hierarchy." The hatred of arbi- 
 trary power, either in a political or religious form, was certainly the 
 predominant cause of the emigrations that peopled Anglo- America." — « 
 (i, 173, 187.) 
 
 Mr. Macgregor, in his recent work on " Commercial Statistics, " 
 draws the following picture of Spain : " The mass of the people are 
 illiterate, superstitious, and accustomed to reverence and obey the 
 clergy, and to respect and depend on the higher ranks. The popular 
 lion decreased from idleness, and from the superstitions and pride of the 
 Grandees and even Hidalgoes, (a species of squirearchy claiming noble 
 alliance,) who preferred their sons being ecclesiastics or even monks, 
 rather than having the one or the other engaged in industrious, rational, 
 and natural occupations ; agriculture was neglected ; the national 
 power sunk, &c. In 1803, the population was 10,268,000," (not half 
 the number of 1380) — " of this number, the clergy, monks, nuns, and 
 officers of the Inquisition amounted to 203,298, or 1 in 50 — the Nobles 
 to one million four hundred and forty thousand, or one in seven!" — - 
 (ii. 946, 943.) 
 
 The decay of Spain is not to be explained by its epidemics, or sani- 
 tory history, but by its political and social organization. Had her 
 colonial governments been constructed after the North American type, 
 the Hispano-American race would probably have now exceeded one 
 hundred and fifty millions, from the Mississippi to Rio de la Plata — from 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific, instead of presenting, after a trial of more 
 
than three and a hajf centuries, under auspices tlie most favorable, a 
 most deplorable spectacle of vital decline, nay, of disorganization, if not 
 of decomposition. 
 
 Passing from Spain to England, I would ask : Has not the popu- 
 lation of England itself constantly increased as despotism diminished '? 
 Until times comparatively recent, England was not a populous country. 
 During two centuries ending in 1575, the population scarcely doubled 
 itself, having increased from two and a half millions to four millions six 
 hundred thousand. It did not again double itself until 1801, a period of 
 two hundred and twenty-five years! (Loud. Quart. Rev.) Indeed, 
 Mr. Alison says, that for fifteen centuries previous to the reign of 
 Henry V, the population hardly tripled — a ratio of increase from 
 twenty to thirty times slower than that of the United States. The 
 population of England, from 1700 to 1710, declined from 5,134,516 to 
 5,000,337— more than 08,000 !* According to Mr. Hallam, {History 
 Liter.) King, in 1G01, estimated that the population of England would 
 not double before A. D. 2300. 
 
 In modern times, the increase of population in Ireland, has been 
 considerable, while the physical comforts and material wealth, have 
 been more inaccessible to the masses than in any other country in 
 Europe, not excepting France. f Is not the tendency to republicanism 
 stronger in Ireland than in any other portion of the United Kingdom ? 
 Without pretending that an affirmative answer would afford a satisfac- 
 tory explanation, it may be asserted, that the usual explanation is little 
 short of ridiculous, namely, that the Irish having nothing to eat, take to 
 matrimony as the only pleasure that remains tor them ! as if the mul- 
 tiplication of mouths, could remove starvation ! Common sense, and 
 Mr. Malthus, recommend the opposite line of conduct, for everywhere, 
 even among savages, poverty is an impediment to marriage. Accord- 
 ing to Mr. Doubleclay, the English Nobility decline, and become 
 extinct from a full diet, while, according to others, starvation causes the 
 utmost fecundity among the Irish ! Can it be possible, that the most 
 refined and the best educated classes of nobility in the world, kill, or 
 emasculate themselves with downright gluttony, while the unreasoning 
 animals — for Mr. D. includes both animals and plants in the category, 
 multiply in South America, upon a "plethora" of grass to such an 
 extent, that Humboldt points out a plain, containing twelve millions 
 of cows IX 
 
 It may be proper, in order to illustrate this subject more fully, to take 
 a rapid survey of the dynamical condition of the population in several 
 countries, where data, of an authentic character, are the most ready of 
 access — a survey which must necessarily be brief, and, which will, it 
 is hoped, be of suggestive, if not of demonstrative value. 
 
 * Finlaison. Milner's Elevation, People. 72. London, 1846. 
 
 f The Vital Statistics of France must not be studied in books of travel, but 
 in the works of the able statisticians of that country, including the official 
 Reports of the Minister of Interior, &c. The destitution in the greater num- 
 ber of the Departments, would be almost incredible, were it not too well 
 authenticated to admit of a doubt. 
 
 \ The first horned cattle were sent into the Llanos, according to Humboldt. 
 in 1548, 
 
The British monarchy — the host in the world— the most favorable to 
 vital progression, produces, nevertheless, in this connection, disastrous 
 results throughout its entire colonial possessions. As to the once 
 colonies, now called the United States, historians greatly err in taking 
 the Declaration of Independence in its literal sense, as if the 4th of 
 July, 1778, were the era when the Pleiads of the British Empire in the 
 Western Hemisphere, shot from the Constellation of Taurus (the Bull) 
 to an entirely new position in the political heavens. Practically 
 speaking, independence, and the representative principle had always 
 existed, though it had remained as the unwritten law — (lex non scripta.) 
 The declaration, with its resultant, the constitution, laid the foundation, 
 not of the representative practice, but of the lex scripta — of the written 
 decalogue, of the exteriorations of nationality, and of international 
 recognition. This fact in the history of American government, deserves 
 more attention than has hitherto been, given to it by writers. It is 
 true, Mr. Bancroft in his excellent history of the Colonization of the 
 United States, incidentally mentions that the. form of Government estab- 
 lished in Connecticut , in 1639, does not deviate essentially from the 
 present* 
 
 Merope's dim star is a type of that colony governed by the British 
 monarchy, so far as vital dynamics is concerned. This fact, so melan- 
 choly in a statistical point of view, I prove by the admissions of the best 
 authorities among British writers. British power has predominated 
 for nearly a century in India, and now rules more than one hnndred 
 millions of semi-barbarians who crouch before it, while it numbers, of 
 the entire Caucasian race, only one for every five hundred inhabitants 
 of the United States. The census of 1S43, showed a decline in the popu- 
 lation of Calcutta. More than half a century ago, it was reckoned, at 
 from 500,000 to 700,000— in 1752 at 409,05(>. The census of 1822, 
 gave only 179,916f— a decline of 230,000. 
 
 " In the East Indies the European races, French, Danes, Portugese, 
 and British do not exceed 40,000, including the Queen's regiments ; — 
 35,000 of whom are in the employment of the government. "J 
 
 * In his sophistical work, (just from the press,) against Democracy, M. 
 Guizot attributes American republicanism to Washington, and a few gentlemen 
 of Washington's selection, and maintains that Washington had no confidence 
 in the people ! Washington was only the worthy representative of the popular 
 mind. The whole country was full of Washingtons. M. Guizot may be 
 sincere in this statement, but how will he account to his conscience and to 
 history for his late attempt to identify Democracy in France with M. Proud- 
 hon's doctrine, that property is a crime — that God is evil only, and that man, 
 in despite of God, becomes virtuous ? " If there were no God," said Voltaire' 
 "we should be obliged to invent one :" (Si Dim n'existoit pas il faudroi 
 I'inventer.) M. Guizot ought to know, must know, that M. Proudhon's doc- 
 trine of God's malevolence and of man's benevolence, so harmless from its very 
 absurdity, has not received the sanction of the people, any more than that of 
 the ex-minister himself. The prevalence of such a doctrine would probably 
 lead to the most disastrous results in vital progress. 
 
 f Encyc. Brit. 
 
 I Geog. By Messrs. Smith. Rose. Laurie, Galloway, and Drs. Nicholl and 
 Balfour. Edinburgh, 1844, p. 698-9. The very latest authorities give, I 
 believe, the enumeration, already given. 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 Canada, to which emigration is invited by rewards from the crown 1 , 
 and in which more immigrants are received than in any other similar 
 community, is thus spoken of in a recent work by Messrs. Chambers of 
 Edinburgh, — a work in which a predilection in favor of British institutions, 
 is not concealed: "In comparing Canada with the (United) Slates, 
 every intelligent traveller allows, that the citizens of the Union are 
 infinitely more active than the subjects of Great Britain. Within the 
 colonial territories, all public works, and most of the settlements, pro- 
 ceed slowly, the system seeming to be rather inert ; while on the States' 
 side of the boundary, every species of work proceeds with the most 
 astonishing rapidity, canals being cut, railways formed, and towns built, 
 in an inconceivably brief space of time. As Upper Canada has nearly 
 the same natural advantages as the States, and as the people, it may be 
 presumed, are as well educated and as generally intelligent, it would 
 seem that the true cause of the difference we specify is in the mode of 
 conducting public affairs" Is it not the monarchical principle, in the 
 one case, which retards, as it is the representative principle in the other 
 case which accelerates the movement of the population? Do not these 
 principles stand in the same antagonistic relations that the vis inertia 
 bears to the moving forces in the material world 1 According to the 
 savans of Edinburgh, in the new Universal Geography, the Canadas, 
 in 1844, contained only 893,684 souls, notwithstanding the enormous 
 vital importations to those countries for centuries. 
 
 Leaving the cold climate of Canada on the one side of the United 
 States, for South America and the West Indies on the other, it will be 
 found that the British possessions as well as those of other monarchical 
 powers— -I say it will be found that these colonies, abounding, nay exu- 
 berant in all the luxuries of tropical climates, are actually decaying, or are 
 nearly stationary, perhaps tending to extinction, — a conclusion that will 
 scarcely be deemed unwarrantable after examining the data which 
 follow, and which are taken almost at random from many : English 
 Guayana with an area of 76,000 square miles, settled in 1580, contained 
 in 1847, but 4,000 whites, with coolies, blacks, and mixed races 
 amounting to 94,000. 
 
 The British colony called the Belize or Honduras, in America, situa- 
 ted between 15° 54' and 18° 30' N. Lat., containing 16,400 square 
 miles, and never visited by the yellow fever,* had by the returns of 
 1845, only 399 whites ; the total population W 7 as 10,709. 
 
 In many of the British West India Islands, the population is either 
 stationary or declining, particularly as it regards the Black race. The 
 following statistical memoranda are taken chiefly from the Library of 
 Useful Knowledge, by Mr. Porter, and Professors Long and Tucker, on 
 America and the West Indies, and from Mr. Macgregor* (Lond. 1845. 
 1847.) In St. Vincent the decrease by deaths, beyond the number 
 replaced by births, during 14 years ending in 1831, was 2,579, or not 
 quite | per cent per annum, hi Dominica for 9 years ending in 1826, 
 *he deaths exceeded the births 662, in a population of 17,959. The total 
 population of all the races in Nevis, in 1788, was 1(1,070, — in 1836 only 
 1)250 ; the deaths having exceeded the births among slaves, in 14 years 
 
 i<; See Macgregor's Progress of America, Lond. 1847 — a voluminous work. 
 
1 1 
 
 ending- in 1831, by 213 in a population of 9602, and in 3 years after, 
 by 327. In Jamaica, from 1817 to 1832, the slaves constantly declined — 
 from 346,150 to 302,666 5 — a decrease of 43,481, or much over one 
 eighth ! 
 
 In St. Christopher, from 1817 to 1831, the same class decreased 344 
 in 20,168. Martinique, a French West Indian Island, has, among the 
 whites, free blacks, and colored, 37 deaths to 29 births,— among slaves 35 
 deaths to 32 births. Guadaloupe, (French,) on December 31st 1835, 
 contained 31,252f ree persons, and 96,323 slaves,— among the former 
 there were but 28 births for 34 deaths ! 
 
 Nevis, from 1809, to 1823, was nearly stationary ; the last period 
 gives 11,000; the census of 1812, gave 10,430. Grenada had a total 
 population, in 1823, of 29,000,— the slaves 25,000 ; in 1791, the whites 
 1,000,— in 1823 only 900 ; in 1815, slaves 29,381,— in 1820 only 25,677 
 in 1823, only 25,000. The slaves in St. Vincent, in 1817, were 
 25,255, in 1820, only 24,252, in 1823 only 24,000. In Dominica in 
 1805, the total population was 25,031, in 1823 only 20,000— slaves at 
 the former period 22,083, at the latter 16,000; free colored, atthe former 
 4,416, atthe latter 2988. Montserrat, in 1805, had 9500 slaves, — in 1812 
 only 6,534, in 1823 only 1500 ; in 1805, free, 1250 ; in 1812 only 442 ! 
 In the Virgin Islands in 1788, the slaves were 9,000, in 1823 only 6,000 ! 
 Tobago, in 1805 had 14,883 ; in 1811 it had 16,897; in 1817 only 
 15,470 ; in 1820, but 14581, and in 1823, only 14,000; from 1815 to 
 1823 the total population declined from 18,000 to 16,000. Trinidad, 
 perhaps declined less than any other Island, at the period now under 
 consideration, (a period long anterior to the great emancipation act), 
 yet the slaves in 1817 were 25,941, in 1823 only 23,500. St. Lucia 
 contained in 1788 a total population of 20,968, in 1810 only 17,485, 
 in 1823 only 17,000; at the former period the slaves were 17,221, at the 
 latter 13,000. The Bahamas, in 1810 contained a total population of 
 16,718, in 1823 only 15,500. Thus during this period every British 
 West India Island, exhibited a more or less rapid decay. 
 
 Hayti, French and Spanish, has shown a vital progression unknown 
 to the British possessions : Humboldt, estimated its population at 
 820,000, others at a million anterior to 1823, since which it has proba- 
 bly declined. Macgregor, in 1847, estimated the population at 700,000, 
 a decline of 120,000 in 24 years ; the slave population alone was esti- 
 mated by Necker, in 1788, for that Island at 620,000. The 6ther West 
 India Islands belonging to the Spanish, French, and Dutch, do not 
 differ materially from the British ; Cuba is the most prosperous, but if 
 the vast and disproportionate importation of negroes be deducted, 15,000 
 to 26,000 per annum, it will be seen that the principle of population is 
 not really progressive. 
 
 The Registers of 12 English West India Islands, for 3 years ending 
 in 1822, show a decline of 1 in 46 slaves, for that short period, that is, 
 from 617,799 to 604,444 ; in some other islands the decline was 1 in 12 
 in 3 years ! 
 
 Humboldt has summed up the population of the British West Indies, 
 to the close of 1823. Total, 776,500 ; slaves 626,800. The total in 
 1788 was 528,302 ; in 1812—732,176 ; (Colquhoun)— the slaves having 
 been 634,096, nearly the same as in 1788, notwithstanding the vast 
 
12 
 
 numbers introduced; for in 10 years ending in 178G, no fewer than 
 610,000 were imported to that Island (Bryan Edwards.) Jamaica in 
 1734, had 80,146 slaves,— 7044 whites; in 1800, slaves 300,939; in 1810, 
 slaves 320,000 ; in 1812 only 319,912 ; in 1815 only 313,814 ; in 1816 
 but 314,038. From 1787 to 1808, the number of slaves imported to the 
 island, in addition to the above, amounted to 188,785, altogether in 108 
 years 676,785, (other authorities say 850,000), and yet, there exists in 
 Jamaica not the half of that number. The whites in 1787 numbered 
 28,000, in 1791 only 30,000, in 1820 only 25,000, in 1816, free colored 
 45,000, in 1820 only 35,000. Barbadoes, 1823, total 100,000, slaves 
 79,000; in 1786 the slaves were 79,220, in 1811 only 79,132 ; in 1811 
 whites 15,794, in 1823 only 16,000 ; in 1805 the free colored 17,300, 
 in 1823 only 5.000. Antigua, in 1823, contained 40,000 souls,— 31,000 
 were slaves ; in 1815 the slaves were 36,000, — in 1820 only 31,053. 
 Saint Christopher contained, in 1823, a total population of 23,000; slaves 
 19,500 ; the slaves in 1805 were 26,000, at which time the total popu- 
 lation was 30,300, showing a decline of more than one third in 18 years. 
 "In several of the West India Islands." says Humboldt, "under the 
 English domination, the population diminishes 5 or 6 per cent annually." 
 (Narative. vii. 135.) 
 
 According to Humboldt, Gallatin, and others, it appears, that pre- 
 vious to 1786, the British had imported into their West India Islands, 
 2,130,000 African slaves. The whole importation of that race in the 
 United States, from first to last, was, according to Mr. Gallatin, only 
 300,000. Thus the British West Indies, settled a century before North 
 America, received more than seven times the number of slaves ever 
 received in the United States, yet, in 1823, under British management, 
 only 627,777 remained ! More than one million and a half had dis- 
 appeared ! One million and a half less than the original importations ! 
 The greatest of all physiological curses is the death, or the extinguish- 
 ment of a race. This was not the fault of the negroes; they were 
 under the control of their masters. Left to themselves, they are so far 
 as facts can guide the inquirer, alike incapable of rational republican 
 or monarchial government. Their experiment in St. Domingo has 
 failed to secure the great objects of all good government. Of the free 
 blacks of the United States, it is not necessary to speak fully, as the 
 subject is too extensive for this paper. Impartial travellers, and statis- 
 tical writers, admit that their condition, whether regarded in a social, 
 or sanitory point of view, is deplorable in the extreme. Emancipation 
 suddenly arrests their vital progress, longevity, psychological energy* 
 and physical improvement. Their numerical increase is not inherent, 
 but extraneous, and contingent, arising from absconding and manumit- 
 ted slaves. Insanity, idiotcy, pauperism,* disease, short life, and speedy 
 death, everywhere mark the downward progress of free blacks, — I ought 
 to except those of New Orleans, who are not only long lived, but 
 healthy, wealthy, moral and progressive. 
 
 M. De Tocqueville,f a profound observer, and an opponent of slavery, 
 says, of the slave, — " if he becomes free, independence is often felt by 
 
 * See the Census of the United States. 
 j Democracy in America, i. 336. 386. 405. 
 
13 
 
 him to be a heavier burden than slavery. The prejudices of the whites 
 against the blacks increase in proportion as slavery is abolished. The 
 inhabitants of the north avoid the negroes with increasing care, in pro- 
 portion as the legal barriers of separation are removed by the legisla- 
 ture." 
 
 The Statistics of New York, and of Philadelphia, and of other cities 
 where free blacks abound, show that the average mortality is more 
 than twice as high among them as among the whites, and, I may add, 
 slaves. Professor Lee, and Dr. Emerson, have published able papers 
 upon this subject. The distinguished Mr. Lyell, of England, after per- 
 sonal observation, admits, that experience has fully proved, that eman- 
 cipation checks the increase of the black race, and, that the increase of 
 slaves shows that they are not in a state of discomfort, oppression and 
 misery. 
 
 The moral bearings of this matter ought to be paramount to vital 
 statistics, no doubt — the latter, however, is the only one now properly 
 under review, and the result is one of the most extraordinary in the 
 natural history of man, namely, that 300,000 Africans under republican 
 and domestic government and management, should increase in a few 
 generations to three or four millions, presenting, at the same time a 
 greater number of long lived, healthful persons, than any people of 
 Europe, not excepting the most iavored classes. Experience shows 
 that up to the present time, all monarchial governments have not only 
 failed to advance the vital condition of the negro, but they have actually 
 contributed towards his extinction, and though the precise cause of this 
 is not very manifest, yet, it seems that one of the essential conditions 
 of his decline belongs to the form ot government. 
 
 The Liberian experiment has been conducted not only with liberality, 
 but with skill and energy, yet, after a trial of twenty six years, made 
 under the most favorable auspices, the total population of the republic 
 of Liberia, according to the last report of the Colonization Society, was 
 only 18,000, including the blacks sent from the United States, as well as 
 those captured from the slave traders, and those natives of Africa who 
 are citizens of the colony. Should this experiment in self government 
 prove successful, as the friends of humanity ardently desire, it will be 
 one of the greatest achievements of the age.* Millions will spring to 
 life in the deserts of Africa. 
 
 The human mind has not, for the most part, as yet, been able to 
 trace with satisfactory clearness, the modes and the essential connections 
 of causes and effects, particularly in vital phenomenology. It is, perhaps, 
 much easier to show how monarchy causes a retardation of vital dyna- 
 mics, than to show that peculiar state or meteorological condition which 
 causes cholera. As nothing whatever is known of the cause of cholera, 
 it would be, perhaps, rational to conclude that it is caused by Republica- 
 nism, provided all history proved that this malady (other conditions 
 being similar), always prevailed among republicans, but never among 
 monarchists : so of insanity, sterility, scrofula, consumption, toothache, 
 
 * In the vicinity of New Orleans, an opulent gentleman, Mr. McDonnough, 
 has educated, emancipated and sent to Liberia, with ample means, about 100 
 blacks, if I am not mistaken. 
 
14 
 
 etc. In fact there is more proof of the deterioration of population by 
 monarchy, than by swamp exhalation. Hence, it would be more 
 philosophical to speak of the malaria of despotism than of swamps. 
 And, if physiologists do not find this out, philosophers will. Mr. Alison, 
 a crown officer, an able historian, and statistician, in his recent work 
 on the Principles of Population, says, — "the visible decline of the 
 human species has excited the most serious apprehensions throughout 
 the whole Turkish Empire. The despotism of the East has destroyed 
 more than all the Freedom of the West has created, ; the depopulation of 
 Asia has more than counterbalanced the increase of Europe and the 
 growth of the Trans-Atlantic world." From recent developments 
 disclosing a rapid decrease in Turkey, several statistical writers anti- 
 cipate the entire extinction of the nation, in one century ! 
 
 Mr. Mackinnon, member of Parliament, in his able volumes on the 
 History of Civilization, published in 1846, says, — " that the fundamen- 
 tal cause of the low state of the population in Turkey, compared with 
 its extent and territory, is undoubtedly the nature of the government." 
 Yet, Turkey has all natural elements of progression. The Kingdom 
 of Greece, has not half as numerous a population as the new state of 
 Ohio. Russia, with all kinds of climates, and with great, nay unexam- 
 pled territorial expansion, increases in population, very slowly, com- 
 pared with the United States. The latter increases twice as fast as 
 Great Britain, three times as fast as Germany, Italy, and Russia, and 
 six times as fast as France.* Nor can this be called a vain boast, a 
 mere numerical result, without a corresponding increase of the mental, 
 social, and material elements of well being. 
 
 Monarchy, statistically speaking, is destructive, even to itself ! not 
 that the Queen of Spain, now, as formerly, is bound by etiquette to sit 
 by a fire, until roasted, because no one below a duchess is allowed the 
 honor of removing her chair from the fireplace — not that the Tzar 
 declares war, because one of his numerous titles is omitted in a diplo- 
 matic paper — not that he orders the Italian embassador's hat to be 
 nailed on his head, because it had not been taken off soon enough. If 
 the statistics of the fifty reigning families on the first day of January, 
 1848, and consequently, before the recent republican demonstrations, 
 be analyzed, it will be found, on comparing them with a similar num- 
 ber of families, taken without discrimination in the American Union, 
 that the former, not the latter class is retrograding. Of fifty sovereigns, 
 (including the Pope, and the Emperor of Brazil,) all had been married 
 but six — of these fifty, no less than thirty-six married with reigning 
 families — one, three times, and eight twice-^of forty-four married 
 sovereigns, twelve, (more than one-fourth) were childless — only thirty- 
 one out of fifty, had heirs presumptive- — two-fifths of their crowns 
 were liable to descend to collateral kindred, and one-tenth of the whole 
 (not including the Pope) had no heir directly or collaterally ! The 
 whole number of Royal births in 1847, was thirteen — the deaths four- 
 teen. Among the whole, Victoria is probably the most fruitful — cer- 
 tainly the most liberal and the most beloved at home and abroad. 
 
 * The French population, according to M. D'Angeville, requires 139 year* 
 to double itself. Statist. App. iii. Paris. 1837. 
 
15 
 
 'th& North American Indians, though in the possession of the largest 
 liberty, have no more republicanism among them than South American 
 generals. The Indians are not fruitful, whether their food be scanty 
 or plentiful ; this has always been so, and still continues. Mr. Catlin, 
 who admires Indians, perhaps, more than most persons, and who spent 
 eight years ending in 1340, with these people, and visited forty-eight 
 nations, declares, " that it is very rare for an Indian woman to have 
 more t\mnfour or jive children, and in no case ten or ticelve." (Am. 
 Ind. ii, 288.) 
 
 Practically, the monarchical principle retards the vital progression of 
 a nation by withdrawing a vast proportion of the male population from 
 domestic, to military life. Millions of able bodied men, in the prime 
 of life, throughout Europe, have been hitherto kept constantly under 
 arms, in time of peace, not to resist aggression from without, but the 
 spirit of freedom from within. The fundamental principle of the Holy 
 Alliance, namely, the arming and paying one portion of the population 
 to keep the other in subjection to the will of the sovereign, is, statisti- 
 cally speaking, a dead weight-— the vis inertia of vital dynamics, not to 
 mention many other implied relations essential to the well being of 
 society ; — for, it is evident, that so long as France, Austria, Prussia, 
 Russia, and many other countries are so many great military camps, 
 (whether called republican or not,) productive industry, and capital, and 
 population, must be diminished or retarded, in a corresponding ratio. 
 Whatever may be the organic laws of a country, that country is essen- 
 tially anti-republican, if a large army be necessary for the protection of 
 the government against its own citizens. The citizen not only creates, 
 but perpetuates, and defends the government, chiefly by his vote, and, 
 if need be, by the tribunals. The British Monarchy resists revolu- 
 tionary action by opposing to it the constabulary and the magistracy — 
 a truly republican method, which no declaration of rights, or paper 
 constitutions, can dispense with. An army is an exterioration, not an 
 internality of a republic — temporary and extraordinary organization — 
 an occasional necessary evil. 
 
 The military system of France under the monarchy — under the 
 empire, and under what was called the republic,* goes far in the 
 explanation of the slow vital progress of France— a country wherein 
 the population does not double itself short of 139 years. f 
 
 The Royal masters of France, for example, have for the last eight 
 centuries, with few interruptions, kept up wars, civil or foreign. The 
 flower of the population is always selected for the Moloch of war. The 
 men of the best physical organization, alone, are received into the 
 army to kill, or to be killed, for no rational purpose. Hence, as might 
 be expected, the physical constitution of the French has degenerated. 
 From 1799 to 1832, the minimum height required of recruits for the 
 
 * The republican leaders of the former revolution, discovered that republi- 
 can France had no republicans! Hence, Barrere said, " II y a une repub- 
 lique — il n'y point a des republicans." Petion said there were only five repub- 
 licans in France, including himself! 
 
 f M. le comte A. D'Angeville. Essai sur la Statistiqiie do la population 
 Franeaise. Paris. 1836-7, Append, iii. 
 
li 
 
 army, has varied with the law, having ranged from 1 metre 540 milli 
 metres, to 1 metre 599 millim.; during the wars of the empire it was 1 
 metre 544 millim., that is 4 feet 9 inches, French.* Yet, notwith- 
 standing this diminished stature, more than one-third of all the troops 
 drafted for many years were found to be too low for the army ! Under 
 the restoration of the Bourbons, 20,043, more than a third, were 
 rejected from this cause alone, out of every 60,000 recruits. In some 
 of the departments scarcely any are fit for the service : from 1825 to 
 1833, for every 1,000 recruits, selecting ten out of the 85 departments, 
 wherein the stature was minimized, the average number not sufficiently 
 tall to enter the army, was 527, more than half; — the department of 
 Haute-Vienne gave an average of 818, Correze 691, and some others 
 nearly the same number of rejections in every l,000.f And what is 
 still more extraordinary, other physical disqualifications are in nearly 
 the same ratio : for every 80,000 men called to the service, 45,415, are 
 found to be unfit from causes other than lack of stature, so that the 
 quotas furnished by all the departments, average only 1,000 men in 
 every 1927, when exemptions from all causes are enumerated I The 
 influence of war upon the vital progression of population is strikingly 
 shown in the history of Paris, In 1710, the population of Paris:): was 
 490,000 ; in 1798 it had increased only 50,000 ; in 1802 k was 
 672,000 ; in six years after, it was only 600,000, having decreased 
 72,000, and in 1815, at the end of the war, it had fallen to 590,000. 
 Two years of peace brought an increase of 134,596. and twenty-six 
 years ending in 1841, added 329,126, making the total population of 
 the city 909,126 — a contrast that must strike the statisticians, if not 
 Ihe rulers of that renowned country. Marseilles, in 1790, contained 
 106,585 souls, — in 1801 the number was 102,219, but it declined in 
 1811 to 96,271 ; during a long peace, the population augmented, so 
 that in 1846, it had nearly doubled, (compared with the sanguinary era 
 of Napoleon's glory) having reached 183, 186. § 
 
 "Deterioration of the French Population : All writers on political 
 economy and agriculture who have published statistics, agree in think- 
 ing that the population of France is daily losing bodily vigor. If you 
 inquire in the manufacturing districts, you will be told by the owners 
 of factories and works of all kinds, that the French workmen cannot do 
 near so much work as the English or Americans. People connected 
 with the recruiting of the army, will, also, distinctly state, that at no 
 period were there so many men unfit for service as at the present time. 
 Does the cause of all this lie in the bad or insufficient food which these 
 people use? Half a million in Paris do not taste any animal food." 
 (Lancet — quoted from the V Union Mddicale—June, 1848.) Is not the 
 true reason to be sought for in the military operations during, and suc- 
 ceeding tho former French revolution? 
 
 A true Republic, I repeat, requires no army to maintain the authority 
 of its own government, at home, because the people are the State. A 
 musket in the legislative hall is as much out of place, as it would be at 
 the Eucharist. No one in the United States has been convicted of rebel- 
 
 * Essai bur la Stat, par M. D'Angeville, 47, 4to; Paris, 1837. 
 
 j lb. \ Galignani's Paris. § Rev. des deux Mondes. 
 
17 
 
 lion. How different from the military seniimentalism — it should be — 
 despotism of the French Revolution, and its Imperial sequel by which 
 sixty millions, in the prime of life^ were sacrificed ! What a sad check 
 was that to vital dynamics! The Crusades cost forty— the Reforma- 
 tion thirty millions ! 
 
 As the American principle of government has no orthodoxy, it can 
 have no heretics for the flames or the gibbet ; no one has attempted to 
 overthrow it, though, in the theatre of its action, every element of col- 
 lision is encountered to a greater extent than in almost any other 
 country, owing to domestic institutions and local interests of an antago- 
 nistic character. 
 
 It is not deemed necessary, even had I the ability, to analyze the 
 history of the world to prove that the American form of republicanism 
 originated in this country — that the civil polity of no other nation 
 ancient or modern had for its fundamental type, an organic law founded 
 by the sovereign people, delegating a limited power to, and returnable 
 from, the representative, at stated periods, the entire organization being 
 founded solely upon the will and conscience of the majority. The 
 originality of this discovery is due to Americans, as the ablest writers 
 in Europe have the magnanimity to admit. This however, is an 
 important element in the argument, for the negative proposition con 
 firms, in a striking manner, the positive. It might be shown that as all 
 the appreciable conditions of the vital masses of the United States, the 
 representative principle excepted, have existed, or do exist in monar- 
 chical countries without producing in the latter a high ratio of physico- 
 vital progression, there is, and must be, in the former, a cause of 
 acceleration altogether peculiar ; — -the difficulty of the explanation 
 affords no invalidation of the fact itself. If, therefore, the representa- 
 tive principle originated in, and is peculiar to, this country, it is proba- 
 ble that this principle is the cause, or an element ill the composition of 
 the causes concerned in the dynamics of population* 
 
 Mr. Macgregor, in his new work on America* says, that the consti- 
 tution of the United States, " is a constitution probably the nearest 
 perfection, which the human Conception, forecast, and judgment of the 
 human intellect is capable of producing." Lord Brougham, in his late 
 voluminous and learned work on Political Philosophy, says, upon this 
 subject, "that the commonwealths of ancient times had not in any part 
 of their political system the representative principle ." Of the Indepen- 
 dence, or rather of the constitution in which it resulted, he adds, — "this 
 is, perhaps, the most important event in the history of our species. It 
 animated freemen all over the world to resist oppression. It gave an 
 example of a great people not only emancipating themselves without 
 either a Monarch to control or an Aristocracy to restrain them, and 
 demonstrated for the first time in the history of the world, contrary to all 
 •predictions of statesmen and the theories of speculative inquirers, that a 
 great nation, when duly prepared for the task, is capable of self-govern- 
 ment, in other words, that a purely republican form of government can 
 be founded and maintained in a country of vast extent, peopled by 
 millions." " A pure democracy may well be the best government." — 
 u Despotism effectually checks all improvement. The question of the 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 form of Government is one of expediency or utility. This is the sole 
 ground of the duty of obedience and the right of governing. The ques = 
 tion of Resistance depends on this. The general good of the commu- 
 nity, is the very governing principle of all right. 1 ' " The effects of 
 Absolute Monarchy are general misery and corruption^'* 
 
 That able and voluminous writer, Mr. Alison, says that the progress 
 of the United States, " is altogether unexampled : This long continued 
 and astonishing multiplication for two centuries is the most luminous 
 fact which the history of the globe has yet exhibited." After the first 
 disasters of the colonies had passed away, and a very moderate supply 
 of the necessaries of life had been accumulated, mutual dangers, mutual 
 interests, and mutual rights gave to society a peculiar organization, as 
 well as a new impetus or a dynamic principle in vital statistics. The 
 eloquent Bancroft thus speaks of the colonists : " the average duration 
 of life, compared with Europe, was doubled; and the human race was 
 so vigorous, that of all who were born into the world, more than two in 
 ten and full four in nineteen, attained the age of seventy. Of those who 
 lived beyond ninety, the proportion, as compared with European tables 
 of longevity, was still more remarkable." (Hist. Col. U. S. i.) 
 
 It may be said that a mere increase of population does not neces 
 sarily increase the well-being of society, nay, might be accompanied 
 with deterioration. Granted. It could be shown by multitudinous 
 facts, that all the elements entering into the well-being of society, as 
 well as that of increase, have progressively advanced. For examples 
 take longevity and foundlingism as they exist in France, and in the 
 United States — both statistical subjects — the latter having a moral 
 aspect. 
 
 As there is no official record of births and deaths in the United 
 States, I will assume that centenarianism is a proof of longevity, that is to 
 pay, of a long mean duration of life — a position I am ready to make good by 
 the enumerations of those countries which have registries, though the 
 late excellent Dr. Ferry maintained quite the contrary — having formed 
 his opinion from the statistics of Geneva. That centenarianism, and a 
 short mean duration of life, should be connected as cause and effect, 
 would seem in the absence of the most indubitable proof, the most pre- 
 posterous of all propositions, judging from analogy, and from numerical, 
 values. For example, of two persons born, one dies at the end of a 
 y ear — another at the end of a century — the mean life in that case will 
 be 50-£ years. Until better proof be adduced than has been yet given, 
 it may be safely affirmed that the number of centenarians in a given 
 number of people, is presumptive proof of an extended mean life, and 
 that positive data exist, warranting the conclusion that they are not 
 incompatibiiites or antagonistics. The eighty-six Departments of 
 France, present nothing to confirm, but much to overthrow this 
 hypothesis ; for in those Departments where the mean life is shortest, 
 centenarians are the fewest. As it is of great importance to establish 
 this point, I submit the following laborious analysis of a part of my 
 
 * Polit. Philos. iii, 38, 329, i, 82, 71, 155. Lond., 1844. 
 
19 
 
 statistical data. These facts I obtain from the able work of D'Ange- 
 ville, and others — their use, in this relation, so far as is known to me, 
 now appears for the first time. I am not aware that any of the French 
 statisticians have entertained the question of the antagonism between a 
 long mean life and centenarianism. In 1836, the mean duration of 
 life for the eighty-six Departments was thirty-six years and seven 
 months. The census shows that centenarianism is maximized in the 
 department of Ariege, where the mean life exceeds the general mean 
 of the kingdom, nearly two years, and where it exceeds that of the 
 Seine, (Paris.) ten years : in the latter, both centenarianism and the 
 mean duration of life are minimized. The whole nation aflbrds but 
 140 centenarians, which, being divided among eighty-six departments, 
 give nearly one and a half to each. Selecting seventeen departments, 
 wherein there are 5,516,378 souls, less than one-sixth of the whole 
 population of the Kingdom, I obtain eighty-six centenarians, that is, 
 sixteen more than all the remaining sixty-nine departments, affording 
 to each department a mean of nearly five centenarians ; yet six out of 
 these seventeen, are not only the richest of all in centenarians, but 
 give a mean life of 43-g- years, — about seven years beyond the mean of 
 all France : and the mean of the whole seventeen wherein centenarians 
 are maximized, exceeds the general mean nearly two years. This 
 -proof, sti»ng in itself, is confirmed by pursuing another route. Take 
 those twelve departments, (I omit their names for the sake of brevity,) 
 containing about one-eighth of the total population, wherein no cen- 
 tenarians are found, and we obtain a mean life of thirty-four years and 
 seven months, exactly two years less than the mean of ail France, and 
 about four years less than that of the seventeen departments, which 
 contain four-sevenths of the whole mass of centenarians. In the six- 
 teen departments where the mean life is minimized, (the lowest depart- 
 ment being 28f years, the highest 32f,) the general mean being only 
 31^, no less than five have no centenarians whatever. 
 
 By another process, we may arrive at the conclusion that centena- 
 rianism is not antagonistic to a high average life, — at least, in France. 
 In the sixteen departments wherein the mean life is longest, Orne being 
 the highest of this series, that is, forty-nine years and two months, 
 and Gironde the lowest, forty years and ten months, averaging 43^ 
 years, it will be found, that centenarianism is three times more preva- 
 lent, than in a similar series, of sixteen departments, wherein the 
 average life is shortest. This proof is complete, with one exception, 
 namely, the ratios between centenarianism and an extended mean life, 
 do not, in every case, exactly correspond. In a great degree, they go 
 hand in hand ; at least, they never oppose each other. It is highly 
 probable, that nothing more is wanting than correct and extended 
 registries, to show a connection between a high expectation of life, a 
 long average life, and an augmented proportion of centenarians. 
 
 According to the census of 1831, France contained only 140 cente- 
 narians. The Bills of Mortality indicate a much smaller proportional 
 number. M. Demonferrand* has analysed the total number of deaths 
 
 Cornp. Rend, 1835. 
 
20 
 
 in that country, from the age of three months, up to 106 years, during 
 a period of fifteen vears, ending on the first of January 3832,— the 
 mean number of the population having been 31,322,000 during this 
 period, — the mean annual mortality 786,219. The total number of 
 deaths, 11,793,289, afforded only 25 centenarians, or about one in 
 half a million ! Taking the most favorable number, that of the census, 
 the proportion of centenarians to the whole population, is one in every 
 quarter of a million, nearly. 
 
 In the French Encyclopaedia,* M. Leclerc says, that the number of 
 centenarians in the United States, according to the census of 1830, 
 amounted to 508 ; but even this number astonished him, and caused 
 him to exclaimW Explain this who can !"f His astonishment ought 
 to have been more than five times greater, — for, the true number was 
 two thousand six hundred and fifty four. 
 
 At the census of 1840, the number of centenarians had increased to 
 2,771 ; or, as 1 is to 6,157 ; that is, forty times more than in France, 
 and nearly 10^ times more than in England, and Wales ; according to 
 the census of 1841, centenarians had diminished in the latter country, 
 nearly one third, since the preceding census, compared with the popu- 
 lation of that country and Scotland combined. 
 
 The following table will still further illustrate this point, and will 
 complete all that is thought necessary, on this occasion, to prove that 
 republicans, farjfrom being a short-lived race — far from deteriorating, 
 surpass, in this rsspect, monarchists : Centenarian ratios to the entire 
 populations of several countries wherein the numerical data have been 
 the most accurately determined : 
 
 United States, in 1830, had 1 centenarian in every 4,847 persons ; 
 
 in 1840, had 1 " " 6,157 " 
 
 Scotland, in 1831, had 1 " " 19,607 " 
 
 England & Wales, " had 1 " " 55,555 " 
 
 Ireland, " * had 1 " " 19,773 " 
 
 France, " " had 1 " " 250,000 " 
 
 * Diet, de la Conversation. T. xxxix. Paris. 
 
 f Foreigners either cannot, or will not understand the affairs of the United 
 States. At this mordent, I have before me a statistical work, on the Philoso- 
 phy of Death, (London 1841), by Dr. Reid, in which the author quotes and 
 adopts from M. Quetlet, a celebrated statistician of Belgium, " the statistics of 
 the State of Boston" — " of the Stale of Philadelphia" — " of the State of Balti- 
 more'''! A late British traveller describes from personal observation, the New 
 Canal, of New Orleans, as being a very straight Bayou ! The Edinburgh 
 Encyclopaedia says that several meteoric stones fell in the Province of Con- 
 necticut, in 1807. A celebrated American nqvelist was frequently compli- 
 mented in England because he spoke English so well ! An eloquent writer 
 informed me that he had received similar compliments ; was asked, by a young 
 man of large estate, a graduate of Oxford, " How many Lords there were in 
 the United States ?" Dr. Physick, the Father of American surgery, was 
 generally called in France " a doctor," or " a physician," and, not by his 
 proper name. 
 
 There are scarcely any medical writers of note in Paris, whose works are 
 not read by many American Physicians. Dr. Stewart, in his. work on the 
 Hospitals of Paris, (1843), says, 4; few of the French physicians think highly 
 enough of American authorities to quote them." 
 
21 
 
 Hence, assuming the births to bear the same numerical ratio to the 
 entire population in these three great nations, it follows, that every 
 child born in the American Republic, has 10-£ chances more than a 
 British infant, and 40 chances more than a French one, that it will live 
 one hundred years or more, — and, assuming still further, that centena- 
 rian life is an evidence of the expectation or probability of life, it fol- 
 lows, that the population of the United States has not in respect to the 
 .duration of life, degenerated, but has improved greatly, while the Sta- 
 tistics of England show that the Nobility are shorter lived than the 
 working men.* 
 
 Compare the population of England, or of France, to that of the 
 United States, and, it will be found, that in the various relations of the 
 social and vital conditions, no deterioration has been observed. 
 Take foundlingism, in France — a statistical not less than a 
 moral evil — a statistical evil— because nearly all the foundlings, after 
 a short struggle with disease, sink into an untimely grave, — a statistical 
 evil almost unknown in the United States. It must be remembered 
 that Foundlings, (Enfants trouves et abandonnes), in France are 
 abandoned by their parents, not put upon the Parish as in England, 
 among the poor. A distinguished savant and Minister of the Interior 
 in the late monarchy of France, showsf that the abandoned foundlings 
 have more than tripled since the French Revolution, in 1789, when 
 the number was 40,000 per annum : the following is the official 
 account for each year from 1819 to 1833. 
 
 foundlings 114,384 
 114,307 
 115,472 
 118,073 
 " 123,869 
 
 " 127,982 
 
 129,699^ 
 
 The foundling system in the monarchies of Europe, is not only 
 demoralizing— " une action demoralisante" as the French Minister, 
 Gasparin, terms it, but is a great and growing cause of the vital dete- 
 rioration of the population, as by premature death, &c. M. Gasparin 
 attributes this scandalum jnagnatum, to an alteration in the natural 
 affection of family-^ an alteration in the moral principles of his country- 
 men. In Austria, from 1820 to 1840, foundlingism doubled, having 
 averaged yearly 49,317. (Melzer.) 
 
 The American Republic has scarcely any pauperism of native 
 growth, though it would seem as if many countries of Europe were 
 engaged in pauperizing the former, by sending to it their poor for main- 
 tainance. Nor is there in the Republic, foreigners excepted, any class 
 
 1819, 
 
 foundlings 
 
 99,346 
 
 1827, 
 
 1820, 
 
 it 
 
 102,103 
 
 1828, 
 
 1821, 
 
 a 
 
 106,403 
 
 1829, 
 
 1822, 
 
 a 
 
 109,297 
 
 1830, 
 
 1823, 
 
 M 
 
 111,767 
 
 1831, 
 
 1824, 
 
 t< 
 
 117,767 
 
 1832, 
 
 1825, 
 
 u 
 
 117,305 
 
 1833, 
 
 1826, 
 
 u 
 
 116,377 
 
 
 * Brit, and For. Med. Rev. Jan. 1846. 
 
 f Rapport au Roi. 4to. Paris. ] 837. 
 
 I These abandoned foundlings threaten to absorb the greater portion of all 
 the resources of the depart men!;?, and cost between ten and eleven millions of 
 francs per annum. 
 
22 
 
 identical with the Dangerous classes — " Des classes Dangereuses" — 
 described by M. Fregler, and which, according to him, amount to 
 0o,000, in Paris alone, — a class at once poor and willing to commit any 
 crime. 
 
 One of the strangest results of* modern statistics, ascertained and 
 acknowledged by monarchists themselves, is derived from the vital his- 
 tory of hereditary Nobility — a nobility which, in wealth, influence, and 
 power, overshadows the British throne, and which transcends, in these 
 respects, the material advantages enjoyed by most of the ancient patri- 
 cians, barons, and Kings ; — this result proves that the aristocratical 
 principle arrests vital increase and longevity — nay, tends to extinction. 
 What would aristocrats say of a republican institution which tended to 
 extinguish all its male representatives? "/« England, in a great 
 majority of cases, the male heirs of the Peerages — and in all cases of 
 the Baronetages become extinct for want of male heirs !"* The same 
 fact has been admitted as to the old families of Paris. If a physiologist, 
 may be allowed to anathematize, he would say with Lady Macbeth, 
 
 "Out damned spot!" 
 
 What is, and what ought to be, are distinct questions. It is proba- 
 ble that most statisticians will adopt Bentham's utilitarian standard as 
 the true one for statistics, namely, " whatever produces happiness or 
 misery is properly called virtuous or vicious. Virtue and vice are but 
 useless qualities, unless estimated by their influences on the creation of 
 pleasure and pain." He defines the rules of conscience by their 
 *' application to the greatest happiness principle," and asserts that the 
 most virtuous of all actions, are those which propagate and persevere 
 human life.f 
 
 It is not at all material to my argument, that I am unable to show 
 how, or in what mode republicanism favors the vital well-being of 
 society — the fact is sufficient for my purpose. The chain of causation 
 is always difficult to trace ; it frequently eludes observation altogether. 
 Lord Brougham says " that it is now admitted by all reasoners, we only 
 know the connection between events by their succession one after 
 another in point of time, and that what we term causation, the relation 
 of cause and effect, is really only the constant precedence of one event, 
 act, or thing, to another." (Lives, Men. Sci. 124.) Dugald Stewart 
 goes still further, and maintains " that this connection though a constant 
 one, may not be a necessary connection, and that if any such exist we 
 may rest assured, that we shall never be able to discover them." 
 
 War, the greatest of statistical evils, can rarely happen in a represen- 
 tative government, while monarchy tends constantly to war, as the 
 passions of the sovereign, not the interests of the people, may dictate. 
 Burke estimates that for five thousand years, thirty-six millions of men 
 have been killed in battle every century, chiefly for the gratification of 
 Kings. 
 
 M. Guizot, the foe of republicanism, in his History of Civilization, 
 admits that the European governments originated in violence and were 
 
 * Westminster Review, April, 1847. 
 i Theory Soc, Sci. ii, 137, 141. 
 
23 
 
 cemented with blood ; — to use his own words—" All powei--l say alF 
 without distinction — owes its existence in the first place partly to fores 
 — violence has sullied all authorities in the world." This evil is not 
 inherent, but repugnant to republicanism. For example, the annexa- 
 tion of Texas to the United States by the parties representing the 
 majorities of both countries, affords an example of acquiring authority 
 without violence. The war that followed was altogether accidental. 
 It. would not have occurred, but for the fact that Mexico had not 
 publicly recognized the Independence of Texas. Were Canada an 
 independent nation, so acknowledged by Great Britain, its annexation 
 to the United States by means of the suffrages of the people of both 
 countries would be free from violence — would be a peaceful acquisition. 
 
 To suppose that vital progression is regulated by no law, but a for- 
 tuitous one, unconnected w T ith the organization of society, is not reason- 
 able. It is very remarkable, that the writers upon Civilization and its 
 advantages, have not recognized the Representative Principle, as the 
 true type of all that deserves to be called modern Civilization — the y 
 only, really fruitful discovery in social physics, of which the world can 
 yet boast. The type of all other governments, is the patriarchical or 
 paternal, which, becomes unnatural the moment it is transferred from 
 a family — from a true father to the step father, over a nation., since, it 
 cannot be tempered by the real parental affection. If modern civiliza- 
 tion tends to humanize man, it is chiefly by its equalizing operations, 
 that is, by its approximation towards the American principle. 
 
 M. Guizot, the ex-minister of France, usually regarded in Europe as 
 the most philosophical expositor of Civilization, is wilfully, or really 
 unacquainted with the American principle, since he does not allude to 
 it in his History of Civilization — a work in which he holds the follow- 
 ing language : " I cannot but regard France" — it was the France which 
 Louis Phillippe and himself governed — " I cannot but regard France, 
 as the centre, as the focus of Civilization. There is not a single great 
 idea, not a single great principle of civilization, which, in order to be- 
 come universally spread, has not first passed, through France." A 
 British knight, Sir Graves Chamney Haughton, of many titles, in his 
 "Inquiry into the first Principles of Reasoning," bravely claims the 
 whole system of American Civilization as but a loan from England. 
 "The United States affords," says he, "the extraordinary spectacle of 
 a People without a Government !" — for such he calls an elective 
 Executive ! " It is English Institutions that have reason to be proud of 
 Washington, and not the North American Republic, which was the 
 offspring, and not the parent of the Deliverer of his Country. Every 
 good that America can boast of, she has derived from the Parent State,'' 
 (England).* Gauls and Britons, with few exceptions, appear alike 
 unacquainted with the advance which America has made in the natural 
 history of Government, whether the latter be regarded in its political, 
 or physiological action. 
 
 Monarchists argue that republicanism, by exciting ambition, causes 
 insanity, while despotism prevents it ! Such seems to be the opinion of 
 
 * Lond. 1839. p. 108, 
 
24 
 
 M. Baillarger of the Lunatic department of the Salpetriere.* The 
 healthful excitement growing out of political freedom from which every 
 man has much to hope, and but little to fear, is not- probably productive 
 of any malady whatever — and least of all, lunacy. Without going into 
 a lengthened review of the vital history of France, it does not seem 
 that the modern statistics of that country justifies this conclusion. The 
 minister of agriculture and commerce, in a recent work estimates the 
 total number of insane, in 1841, among 34,213,927 inhabitants, at 
 19,772. According to D'Angevilie, the census of 1836, gives for the 
 mean number of lunatics in the eighty-six departments^ fifty-six to every 
 100,000 ; or 18,757 for the Kingdom — a number which, for several 
 reasons, he considers as greatly under the true one. The department 
 of the Seine, (Paris,) gave an average nearly six times higher than the 
 general mean, — that is, 312 in 100,000 ; this department which con- 
 tained 1,106,891 souls, numbered 3,438 insane persons, (des alienes.) 
 Now, by the census of 1840, both the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, 
 Mississippi, and Louisiana, with a white population amounting to 
 1,824,361, had only 1,658 idiots and insane,— -a proportion nearly four 
 times less than that of the Seine. Has the Seine, therefore, four times 
 more of that political freedom, which is the supposed cause of insanity? 
 Did despotism ever reign in France, without being concentrated in ten 
 fold power in its capital? Has not Paris always ruled France ? And 
 being now converted into a great military camp, wailed in with the 
 most formidable fortifications, will she not continue to do so ? If there 
 be any despotism in France, it must be in Paris, the focus of power. 
 Why then are the Parisians about six times more liable to insanity 
 than the people of the other eighty-five departments, wherein the vie' 
 inertia of the government is least? 
 
 Nor is there any ground for supposing that political freedom has any 
 tendency to increase the number of suicides : M. D'Angevilie says 
 that the number of suicides iti France, officially determined, amount 
 annually to 2,000, exceeding all murders and assassinations, more than 
 three fold. The number in the year 1837, was 2,413, in 1838, it was 
 2,556, and in the next year 2,717 — showing an augmenting ratio, veiy 
 great indeed. This crime, in the United States, is comparatively rare, 
 if foreigners be deducted. 
 
 The representative principle, so far from producing mental diseases, 
 developes the faculties and the affections, giving them the very best 
 direction, stimulating them by motives of the most enduring and honora- 
 ble kind, by leaving open, to all, the paths to knowledge, power, and 
 fame. Without admitting to the fullest extent the doctrine of animal 
 perfectibility, the tendency to arise above the original type— the creation 
 of new organs, — or the indestructibility of these organs so acquired, as- 
 advocated by Lamarck, it. may be affirmed with considerable probability 
 that civilization changes even the organization, developing, for example, 
 the anatomy, increasing the nutrition, the sensibility, tne adaptive- 
 powers, and the energy of the whole nervous system, especially of its 
 inter-cranial portion. The phrenologist, would, however, trace the 
 l_ — ^ i 
 
 * Lancet, September, 1845. 
 
taiisation by a different route — the civilization, to the organization. 
 Certain it is, that civilized anatomy differs from savage anatomy. 
 Thus Mr. Catlin, the enthusiastic admirer of Indians,* admits the infe- 
 riority of their muscular system. Mr. Catlin, during a long residence 
 among many tribes, painted three thousand full length figures of individ- 
 uals of various nations, and must therefore, biases excepted, be well 
 qualified to judge of their physical appearance. He says that their 
 shoulders are narrow- — that the muscles of the chest, arms, &c, are 
 less developed, and that their bones are lighter, and their skulls thin- 
 ner, than those of the white race. He adds, that eighteen in twenty 
 are by nature entirely without beard. (Am. Ind. ii. 225 — 7). The 
 craniological differences among the Indian Nations themselves, and 
 between them and the white race, as illustrated in the truly original 
 work of Dr. S. G. Morton, of Philadelphia, entitled, Crania Americana, 
 are still more remarkable. Dr. Morton, (who has also taken the lead 
 in Oriental Craniology), shows in his Crania JEgyptica, that the 
 Caucasian and Negro skulls, differed in internal capacity, in external 
 conformation, and in the facial angle, four thousand years ago, as they 
 do at present, and that the social position of the two races then bore 
 the same relation to each other that they do now ; the learned author 
 adds, that " the physical or organic characters which distinguish the 
 several races of men, are as old as the oldest records of our species." 
 
 The Crania Republicana has not yet been written, and consequently, 
 it cannot be compared with monarchial craniology. A difference there 
 must be, if phrenology be true, since it assumes, that the spiritualistic- 
 constitution, responds to the materialistic — the psychological manifes- 
 tation, + o the anatomical conformation. Dr. Morton, in his Crania 
 Americana, appears unwilling to assent to all the details of this science, 
 though he admits "that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that its 
 parts perform different functions." 
 
 One of the soundest of phrenological expounders, Mr. George Combe, 
 maintains that the natural talents and dispositions of nations, equally with 
 individuals, arc the results of their cerebral developments ; he adds, 
 that " those who contend that institutions come first, and that character 
 follows as their effect, are bound to assign a cause lor the institutions 
 themselves. If they do not spring from the native mind, and are not 
 forced on the people by conquest, it is difficult to see whence they can 
 originate." 4i The grain of the New Holland skulls is extremely rough 
 and coarse ; that of the Hindoos, fine, smooth, and compact, more 
 closely resembling ivory ; the Swiss skulls are open and sof in the grain, 
 while the Greek are cioser and finer. There would be a correspond- 
 ing quality of brain &c. The real characters of foreign nations will 
 never be philosophically delineated, until travellers shall describe their 
 
 * An exuberance of charity guided Mr. Catlin's pen, in writing the follow- 
 ing, and many similar passages, eulogizing the most inflexible, and in that 
 respect the most sublime race of savages that ever walked the face of the 
 earth : " I fearlessly assert to the world (and I defy contradiction,) that the 
 North American Indian is everywhere, in his native state, a highly moral and 
 religious being." " Morality and virtue, I venture to say, the civilized world 
 need not undertake to teach the Indians ; they are by nature decent, modest, 
 unassuming and inoffensive." (Am. Ind. ii. VA3. 245.) 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 temperaments, and the size and combinations of their brains." (Phre- 
 not. 586. 582). If these doctrines be well founded, the Anglo-Ameri- 
 can skulls must be different from the rest of mankind, seeing that all 
 others have from the beginning of the world bowed to monarchs. 
 
 The psychology, not less than the anatomy of races, differs. The 
 mental, as well as physical constitution is to a considerable extent 
 peculiar, fixed, and transmissible from generation to generation, as 
 among the Hebrews, the Arabs, the Hindoos, the American Indians, the 
 Negroes. These retain their original types as far back as history 
 reaches. The physiological anatomy of nations and of races, opens a 
 new, rich, and inviting field to the vital ethnologist. The craniological 
 contributions of phrenologists, and of Dr. Morton, upon this subject, 
 have advanced the psychology, ethnography and natural history of the 
 different races, together with a better knowledge of the national charac- 
 teristics of mankind. Does the Republican or any other form of 
 government depend altogether upon anatomical structure? Does the 
 form of government create and sustain the essential conditions of vital 
 decline, or of vital progression, independently of any peculiar organ- 
 ization in the nervous system or brain? Here the physicist, the phre- 
 nologist, the physiologist, the moralist and the ethnologist may differ in 
 their methods of explaining vital phenomenology. The moral influen- 
 ces are great upon the progress of vital physics. A celebrated physi- 
 ologist of Paris, M. Magendie, in a lecture about three years ago, 
 declared, (but without the least probability), that the whole benefit 
 derived from blood-letting, in disease, is due to its moral effect on the 
 imagination ! " For ten years," says he, (in speaking of the blood- 
 lettings which he had performed), " I have endeavored to act on the 
 mind of the patient rather than on the circulation /" (Boston Med. 
 Jour. May, 1846.) 
 
 Dr. Rush, (the Hippocrates ot America, and the Washington of 
 Revolutionary doctors), in his " Account of the influence of the military 
 and political events of the American Revolution upon the Human Body," 
 asserts that this great event " restored to perfect health, many persons 
 of infirm and delicate habits, especially hysterical women" and caused 
 a greater fecundity in the United States, than had ever been observed 
 since the settlement of the country. It produced among the patriots an 
 uncommon cheerfulness, while, upon the other hand the Royalists died 
 off rapidly ; — "their deaths were ascribed to the neglect with which 
 they were treated by their ancient friends." Many of these had sworn 
 allegiance to the British Government in order to protect their estates. 
 " Their disease was called, by the common people, the protection fever." 
 ^Lord Brougham says, in relation to the death of the Princess Char- 
 lotte : " the whole country felt the blow, as if it had been levelled at 
 every family within its bounds. While the tears of all classes flowed, 
 and the manlier sex itself was softened to pity, the female imagination 
 was occupied, bewildered, distracted, and the labors of child-bearing 
 caused innumerable victims among those whom the accident had struck 
 down to the ground /" (Hist. Sket. ii, 43.) 
 
 To this example of the moral influences upon population, I add 
 another taken from the same author — an example less touching, but 
 not less illustrative. For eight years the Prince Regent reigned de 
 
27 
 
 facto— during the lunacy of his father, and was virtually King : kk no 
 Prince," says Lord Brougham, " was ever more unpopular while his 
 iather lived — a week before the death of George III, he travelled to and 
 fro, without attracting more notice than any ordinary wayfaring man. 
 Merely because his name was changed to King from Regent, he was 
 greeted by crowds of loyal and curious subjects, anxious to satiate their 
 longing eyes with the sight of a King in name." Indeed, Lord 
 Brougham says, that " a few months before" [his coronation] " he 
 durst as soon have walked into the flames as into an assembly of his 
 subjects in any part of the empire." Speaking of the English, he asks, 
 "if there be on the face of the globe any other people to whom the 
 fortunes and the favor of Kings and Queens are so dear an object of 
 concern ? The barbarians of Russia flocking to be murdered by their 
 savage Czar, or the slaves of Eastern tyrants kissing the bow-string 
 that is to end their existence, act under the immediate influence of 
 strong and habitual religious feeling — the feeling that makes them quail 
 and bow before a present divinity. But no people, no rational set of 
 men, ever displayed to an admiring world the fondness for kings 
 and queens, the desire to find favor in the royal sight, the entire ab- 
 sorption in loyal contemplations, which has generally distinguished the 
 manly, reflecting, free-born English nation." 
 
 It has been asserted, with what truth I know not, that many French- 
 men who resemble Napoleon, have got that resemblance from thinking 
 of him, imitating his manners, &c. 
 
 It is remarkable, that the moral influences, — the benevolent efforts 
 of individuals, of churches, and of the government, have all failed to 
 civilize the North American Indian, — failed to change his psychologi- 
 cal character ; while the South American Indians become christians, 
 and readily submit to slavery, the North American Indian cannot by. 
 any human power be induced to submit to the former, or embrace the 
 latter. His hatred to civilization, and to every kind of labor for him- 
 self, or another, is as fixed as the anatomy of his cheek bones, the 
 color of his skin — fixed as his love for personal liberty — a liberty at 
 once stern, sterile, and despotic, — a savage independence, the least 
 encroachment upon which, real or imaginary, fires him with enduring 
 revenge. It is this independence that is the theme of his death-song — 
 that consoles him while contemplating the destiny which steadily but 
 surely tends to the extinction of his race. To use his own sublime 
 language, " the Red Men are fast travelling to the shades of their 
 fathers, towards the setting sun" — this alternative, involving the 
 extinction of his race, he choses in preference to the civilization of the 
 4k Pale faces." This savage independence gives to the Indian charac- 
 ter a sublimity without a parallel. This redeeming virtue, if it may be 
 so called, when isolated from all the other elements of social physics, 
 must have forcibly impressed the Anglo-American mind during the first 
 settlement of the country ; it may even have contributed to hasten the 
 development of that higher, purer, and more rational independence, 
 which, with the new form of civilization (the representative govern- 
 ment) was at length achieved — a form which promises to extend 
 throughout both hemispheres — which carries with it all the elements of 
 well-being, mental, material, vital, and which, whatever be the nature 
 
28 
 
 of its viviiying action, presents as its resultant the sublimest spectacle 
 that the sun beholds in his diurnal revolution, namely, the wave ot' 
 population flowing from Maine to Oregon — from Florida to California — 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; — while, " from the rivers to the ends 
 of the earth," despots are flying — the vital masses, the people, anima- 
 ted by this principle, are breaking the chains with which their ances- 
 tors, as well as themselves, had always been fettered ; whole nations 
 standing with drawn swords, uttering as with the voice of thunder 
 their determination to be free, while the Genius of History holds the 
 pen ready to write — The Last of the Kings ! — an event, which the 
 greatest, the wisest, the best and the most consistent apostle of monarchy, 
 foresaw, nay, seemed to welcome just before his noble spirit took its 
 flight from earth to immortality. The last political paper whicji Cha- 
 teaubriand wrote early in the year 1847 — a period when the nations 
 were free from perturbation, contained this, perhaps, the most 
 remarkable prediction ever uttered by uninspired writer : Thus spoke 
 the dying patriarch, of Legitimacy, and of French Literature : " In 
 politics I have believed in liberty ; I wished to see it established by 
 means of royalty, because it seemed to me, that emanating from a 
 principle of authority, it would be less an object of dread and better 
 regulated. If Kings would not have it so, it is not my fault ; and I 
 have often predicted their fate, when they have mistaken their way. 
 Now Kings fail ; I remain faithful to them from a sense of honor rather 
 than opinion. This, then, is my position. I am preparing to die a 
 free citizen. It is by means of Christianity that after a lapse of one or 
 two centuries, the ancient form of society, which is now in a state of 
 decomposition, will be renovated." 
 
 Addendum. I beg leave to add the following note, hoping that it 
 may attract the attention of the American Medical Association. If that 
 distinguished and patriotic medical Congress should call the attention of 
 the Government to an improved method of taking the decennial census, 
 and should recommend as expedient, the adoption, in connection with 
 other nations, of one method for all, as far as may be convenient, great 
 advantages would result to the science of political economy and vital statis- 
 tics. The mutual interests of nations as well as the interests of 
 science, require that statistical methods should be identical or similar ; 
 otherwise numerical comparisons must be very unsatisfactory, nay, 
 almost impossible, as every honest inquirer must admit. 
 
 Had the different nations that cultivate statistical science, adopted the 
 same methods, the same points of departure, and the same aims, 
 numerical comparisons would not be, what they are now, very unsatis- 
 factory, because uncertain. Each nation has not only a different pro- 
 cess and a different time, but often a different object, in periodical 
 enumerations, according as the military, industrial, or other interest 
 sways the government. Even, in the same country, one annual or 
 decennial census diners, sometimes, essentially in its classification from 
 that by which it was preceded : for example, the census of the United 
 States for 1800, reckons all persons under sixteen years of age as one 
 class. In the next decennial enumeration, this class is divided into 
 one and a fraction, and ten years after into three and a fraction. In 
 1800, and in the two succeeding decennial periods, all persons aged 45 
 
29 
 
 and over, form but one class, while in 1830, this class undergoes sii 
 decimations, and in no census are any persons reckoned as exceeding 
 one hundred years, though some survive that age from ten to forty 
 years, particularly in the South. In every census the black race is 
 classified in a manner wholly different from the white, while, in both, 
 births and deaths, are entirely omitted. Hence several of the important 
 elements of vital statistics can never enter into our calculations. 
 
 A registry of births, deaths, and ages, is required in order to solve 
 many vital problems. For example, is the comparative mean duration 
 of life in New Orleans, Paris, London, or St. Petersburg, a question to 
 be solved ? Is not this question one of simple arithmetic 1 Suppose 
 the creolized population of New Orleans to be only 100,000 — exclude 
 from this reckoning immigration and emigration — suppose the births to 
 be annually 4,000, and the deaths the same, — then the population will 
 be stationary, and the mean duration of life will be exactly twenty-five 
 years, however much individual ages may vary from each other. 
 Hence, by using the births or deaths for a divisor, the quotient will be 
 the average or mean life of the entire population. But this will be an 
 erroneous method, if in our population, the births be as above, 4,000, 
 while the deaths are only 2,000 yearly : — for, in this case, the mean 
 life will be doubled, or at least greatly augmented. When the ratio 
 between the births and deaths differ considerably, the mean of the two 
 will serve as a divisor in the obtainment of the mean life, with, at least, 
 an approximative certainty. If the unacclimated portion of New 
 Orleans be reckoned at one -fourth of the entire population, this fourth 
 will probably furnish the half of the annual mortality, and consequently 
 the mean length of life among Creoles will be greatly diminished. 
 Thus, if the mean life of Creoles be 45, while that of strangers is only 
 25, the average life of New Orleans will be only 35, that is, Creole 
 life will be shortened ten years by the doctrine of averages, which, to 
 a greater or lesser extent, actually happens.