American Ideals: Character and Life

Shut off from Europe by the peril and length of the voyage across the ocean; encircled by vigilant foes; sharing the fortunes of pioneers on a remote frontier, the colonists were driven together by the conditions in which they lived and by a colonial policy which bore heavily upon them all and bred a growing discontent in every colony. The English, the Scotch, the Dutch brought with them well-defined ideas of political liberty; while the French, driven from their old homes by the tyranny of...