that the zeal of these good people to maintain their rights and privileges did for a while betray them into errors which it is easier to pardon than defend having served a regular in the school of persecution it them to show that they had become in the art they accordingly employed their leisure hours in or hanging divers and for daring to abuse the liberty of conscience which they now clearly proved to imply history of nothing more than that every man should think as he i pleased in matters of provided he thought right for otherwise it would be giving a latitude to now as they the majority were perfectly convinced that they alone thought right it consequently followed that whoever thought different from them thought wrong and whoever thought wrong and persisted in not being convinced and converted was a of the liberty of conscience and a corrupt and member of the body and deserved to be off and cast into the fire now i ll warrant there are hosts of my readers ready at once to lift up their hands and eyes with that virtuous indignation with which we always contemplate the faults and errors of our neighbours and to exclaim at these well meaning but mistaken people for on others the injuries they had suffered themselves � for indulging the preposterous idea of convincing the mind by the body and establishing the doctrine of charity and forbearance by persecution � but in simple truth what are we doing at this very day and in this very enlightened nation but acting upon this very same principle in our political have we not within but a few years released ourselves from the of a government which cruelly denied us the privilege of governing ourselves and using in full latitude that invaluable member the tongue and are we not at this very moment striving our best to over the opinions tie up the tongues or ruin the fortunes of one another what are our great political societies but mere political � our pot house but little of � our newspapers but mere posts and where the unfortunate individuals are with rotten eggs � and our council of appointment but a grand da fe new york where are sacrificed for their political where then is the difference in principle between our measures and those you are so ready to condemn among the people i am treating there is none the difference is merely � thus we instead of � we instead of � we turn out of office instead of hanging � and where they burnt an in we either tar and feather or burn him in � this political persecution being some how or other the grand of our liberties and an proof that this is a free country but notwithstanding the fervent zeal with which this holy war was against the whole race of we do not find that the population of this new colony was in any ways thereby on the contrary they multiplied to a degree which would be incredible to any man with the marvellous of this growing country this amazing increase may indeed be partly ascribed to a singular custom among them and which was probably borrowed from the ancient republic of where we are told the young ladies either from being great and or else like many modem very fond of with matters that did not to their sex used frequently to engage with the men in and other exercises of the the custom to which i allude was known by the name of � a superstitious observed by the young people of both sexes with which they usually terminated their and which was kept up with religious by the more and vulgar part of the community this ceremony was likewise in those primitive times considered as an indispensable preliminary to matrimony their com where ours usually finish by which means k history of they acquired that intimate acquaintance with each other s good qualities before marriage which has been pronounced by philosophers the sure basis of a happy union thus early did this cunning and ingenious people display a at making a bargain which has ever since distinguished them � and a strict to the good old vulgar about buying a pig in a to this sagacious custom therefore do i chiefly attribute the increase of the or yankee tribe for it is a certain fact well by court records and parish that wherever the practice of prevailed there was an amazing number of sturdy born unto the state without the license of the law or the benefit of clergy and it is truly astonishing that the learned in his on population has entirely overlooked this singular fact neither did the of their birth operate in the least to their on the contrary they grew up a long sided raw hardy race of wood and and corn fed who by their united efforts tend ed towards those notable tracts of country called and cape chap vii how these simple turned out to be notorious � how they built air castles and attempted to the in the mystery of in the last chapter i have given a faithful and account of the origin of that singular race of people the country eastward of the new york but i have yet to mention certain peculiar habits which rendered them exceedingly to our ever honoured dutch ancestors the most prominent of these was a certain rambling with which like the sons of they seem to have been gifted by heaven and which continually them on to shift their residence from place to place so that a yankee farmer is in a constant state of occasionally here and there clearing lands for other people to enjoy building houses for others to and in a manner may be considered the wandering of america his first thought on coming to the years of manhood is to settle 