[Pamphlets. American history]

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sketch even the outlines of the history of the measures
undertaken to accomplish this end. I will only observe
that it was attempted by Spain and Portugal on the one
hand; by England, and, to a very limited degree, by Holland and Sweden on the other. The Catholic powers, of
Latin origin, occupied the southern continent, Mexico,
and Florida. The Protestantism of the Anglo-Saxon
states took possession of the North. The former established a vast governmental monopoly of the precious
metals and the commerce of the East; by the latter the
work was left to private adventure, feebly protected by
the state; and, as far as New England is concerned,
prompted and cheered by a glowing zeal for religious
liberty. France preceded England in the occupation of
North America. With one foot at the mouth of the
Mississippi, and the other on the gulf of the St. Lawrence, and a line of posts along the lakes, she rendered it
doubtful for two centuries to whom North America
would belong, or in what proportions it should be divided between the two great schools of European civilization. But England had planted a belt of brave and resolute colonists along the Atlantic coast; no rays of royal
favor beamed upon the hardy germ; it grew up unprotected, despised, scarcely heard of in the great world of
European politics, till it overshadowed the land. As we
look back, by the lights of experience, on the events of
our early history, the occupation of the interior of our
continent by France seems to have served no other purpose than to bind together the English colonies, in their
infancy and youth, by a sense of common danger, and
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