Differences among American colonies

Differences among the American colonies Aside from the prophecy which we will deal with next is these from 300 years ago observations about the places the French visitor went to. And to be honest with you he really didn’t have much to see- He writes of travelling from Hartford to Litchfield and not seeing a single habitation travelling through ten miles of woods while now days you… But of New England he says it is peopled by colonists seeking religious freedom thus having revolted out of principal against despotism. ‘New England …imposed upon it citizens a barren soil necessitating constant labor, was in its geography and heritage more prone to equality. Then of New York and New Jersey he said by contrast, had been settled by individuals concerned with economic well being, and had revolted only out of necessity (On this one hundred later in the American Civil War there was constantly throughout that conflict almost equal support for both Southern and Northern interests and in particular that support even with newly arrived poor Irish was a calculation as stated here ‘concerned with economic well being’ and they only supported one side or the other ‘out of necessity’) While Virginia which was settled by soldiers and gentlemen had preserved its ‘prejudices of nobility’ and had revolted out of pride. Such differences were reinforced by climate, soil, size of landholdings, the place of trade in the economy and other factors. (We have predating Karl Marx by a century the application of economic geography and history to understanding in a wide context the differing reactions of populations) As a result the legislators could not simply create a new society, they could only modify what history and conditions had bequeathed them.( A point well made by O’Donovan in a previous post- seen before this one) The laws of Virginia in the midst of the revolution, might be democratic, but the ‘very spirit of government will always be aristocratic’ (And these days as we know the ultimate Aristocratic Institutions are based in Virginia –such as the CIA) Pennsylvania, settle be diverse peoples with diverse traditions, and governed patriarchally by propertied wealth in a spirit of ‘the greatest tolerance and the most complete liberty’ never had resolved its identity, contained to many contradiction and as a consequence, was more attached to the individual than to public liberty (The best example of what he is saying here is the success of the New Yorker John D Rockefeller in the critical Post Civil War period being able to gain control of the American oil industry and become a billionaire as a result) More inclined to anarchy than to democracy’. And saying that these observations which he was making even as USA was in her Revolution were- foundational for the different regions- he said ‘In fifty years the spirit and traces of these original characteristics still would be operative’ ….Was he right? USA –Was Chastellux reading you?